DISEASES, DEFECTS, ETC. 75 



tlie Courts, an attempt will be made to fix in eacli in- 

 stance, which of these does, or does not, amount to an 

 Unsoundness or a Vice. Such conclusions, however, unless 

 founded on decided cases, are merely stated as opinions 

 formed by the application of the rules already mentioned ; 

 and from the difficulty there often is in ascertaining where 

 Soundness ends and Unsoundness begins, people, in doubt- 

 ful cases, must necessarily be guided in a great measure 

 by circumstances. 



Backing and Gibbing are closely allied, and are generally Backinj^ and 

 the result of bad breaking, at the time when the Horse is Cribbing, 

 first put to the collar and refuses to start. When the 

 habit becomes confirmed, the Horse swerves, gibs and 

 backs, as soon as he thinks he has had enough work, or 

 has been improperly checked or corrected, or when he 

 begins to feel the pressure of the collar painful. It is 

 impossible permanently to cure a Horse of this bad habit 

 when it has become fixed {v) ; and as it is both dangerous 

 and diminishes a Horse's natural usefulness, it is a breach 

 of a warranty of freedom from Vice. In an American 

 case, where these vices were proved to have appeared in a 

 Horse on trial, three or four days after purchase, this was 

 held to be evidence that they existed at the time of pur- 

 chase {lo). 



Biting when dangerous is a Vice. Biting, 



The Crystalline Lens is generally the seat of disease in Blindness, 

 the eye of a Horse ; it is so called from its resemblance to 

 a piece of crystal or transparent glass, and on it all the 

 important uses of the eye mainly depend. It is of a thick 

 jelly-like consistence, convex on each side, but there is more 

 convexity on the inner than on the outer side. It is in- 

 closed in a delicate transparent bag or capsule, and is placed 

 between the aqueous and the vitreous humours, and received 

 within a hollow in the latter, with which it exactly corre- 

 sponds. It has, from its density and its double convexity, 

 the chief concern in conveying the rays of light which pass 

 into the pupil. The Lens is very apt to be affected from 

 long or violent inflammation of the conjunctiva, and either 

 its capsule becomes cloudij, and imperfectly transmits the 

 light, or the substance of the Lens becomes opaque (x). 



The confirmed Cataract, or the Opaque Lens of long Cataract. 

 standing, will exhibit a pearly appearance, which cannot 



(f) Lib. XJ. K. "The Horse," {w) FiJiIei/ y. Quirk, ^ 'Minn. IM. 



334. [x) Lib. tr. K. "The Horse," 94. 



