how many teeth are in a horse's mouth?

ladies and gentlemen, hold your breath and brace yourself for the suave, heartbreaker... mr francis bacon:



well, here's an interesting story i read in my history of psychology textbook, written by the man above:

"in the year of our lord 1432, there arose a grievous quarrel among the brethren over the number of teeth in the mouth of a horse. for 13 days the disputation raged without ceasing. all the ancient books and chronicles were fetched out, and a wonderful and ponderous erudition, such as was never heard of in this region, was made manifest. at the beginning of the 14th day, a youthful friar of goodly bearing asked his learned superiors for a permission to add a word, and straightway, to the wonderment of the disputants, whose deep wisdom he sore vexed, he beseeched them to unbend in a manner coarse and unheard-of, and to look in the open mouth of a horse and find the answer to their questionings. at this, their dignity being grievously hurt, they waxed exceedingly wroth and joining in a mighty uproar, they flew upon him and smote his hip and thigh, and cast him out forthwith. for, said they, surely satan had tempted this bold neophyte to declare unholy and unheard-of ways of finding truth contrary to all the teachings of the fathers. after many days of grievous strife the dove of peace sat on the assembly, and they as one man, declaring the problem to be an everlasting mystery because of a grievous dearth of historical and theological evidence thereof, so ordered the same writ down."

so much for philosophical wisdom!