Would the groom take the trouble to examine the mouths of other young horses which "eat all before them," the "lampas" would be ascertained to be a natural development; but the ignorant always act upon faith, and never proceed on inquiry. Young horses alone are supposed to be subject to "lampas;" young horses have not finished teething till the fifth year. Horses are "broken" during colthood; they are always placed in stables and forced to masticate dry, artificial food before all their teeth are cut; shedding the primary molars is especially painful; of course, during such a process, the animal endeavors to feed as little as possible. A refusal to eat is the groom's strongest proof that lampas is present. But, putting the teeth on one side, would it be surprising if a change of food and a total change of habit in a young creature were occasionally attended with temporary loss of appetite? Is "lampas" necessary to account for so very probable a consequence? The writer has often tried to explain this to stable servants; but the very ignorant are generally the very prejudiced. While the author has been talking, the groom has been smiling; looking most provokingly knowing, and every now and then shaking his head, as much as to say, "ah, my lad, you can't gammon me!" Young horses are taken from the field to the stable, from juicy grass to dry fodder, from natural exercise to constrained stagnation. Is it so very astonishing if, under such a total change of life, the digestion becomes sometimes deranged before the system is altogether adapted to its new situation? Is it matter for alarm should the appetite occasionally fail? But grooms, like most of their class, regard eating as the only proof of health. They have no confidence in abstinence; they cannot comprehend any loss of appetite; they love to see the "beards wagging," and reckon the state of body by the amount of provision consumed. [Illustration: BURNING FOR LAMPAS.]