Unsoundness. 



84 WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



sale, you will find for the plaintiff. I am not now deliver- 

 ing an opinion formed on the moment on a new subject, 

 but it is the result of a full previous consideration, as I 

 find I differ from the law as laid down by a learned 

 Judge" (ti). The Jury found a verdict for the plaintiff {v). 



Crib-biting. Crih-hiting, being an unnatural sucking in of the air, 



must be to a certain degree injurious to digestion, must 

 dispose to colic, and so interfere with the strength and use- 

 fulness and health of the Horse. Some Crib-biters are 

 good goers, but they probably would have possessed more 

 endui-ance had they not acquired this habit ; and it is a 

 fact well established, that as soon as a horse begins to be- 

 come a Crib-bifer, he, in more than nine cases out of ten, 

 begins to lose condition. He is not to the experienced eye 

 the Horse he was before. The wear of the front teeth, 

 and even the frequent breaking of them, makes a Horse 

 old before his time, and sometimes renders it difficult or 

 almost impossible for him to graze (ic). 



When not an Crib-biting which has not yet produced disease or altera- 

 tion of structure is not an Unsoundness, but is a Vice under 

 a warranty that a Horse is " sound and free from vice." 

 Thus, where an action was brought on the warranty of a 

 Horse which had been sold for ninety guineas, the question 

 was, whether Crib-biting, which was the Vice in question, 

 was such a species of Unsoundness as to sustain the action. 

 The Horse had been warranted sound generally. Some 

 eminent Veterinary Surgeons were called as witnesses, who 

 stated that the habit of Crib-biting originated in indiges- 

 tion ; that a Horse by this habit wasted the saliva which 

 was necessary to digest his food, and that the consequence 

 was a gradual emaciation. They said that they did not 

 consider Crib-biting to be an Unsontidness, but that it might 

 lead to Unsoundness ; that it was sometimes an indication 

 of incipient disease, and sometimes produced Unsoundness 

 where it existed in any great degree. Upon this Mr. Jus- 

 tice Burrough said, " This Horse was only proved to be an 

 incipient Crib-biter. I am quite clear that it is not in- 

 cluded in a general warranty," and the plaintiff was ac- 

 cordingly nonsuited {x). 



(m) Mr. Justice Coleridge in^o^ 1862, p. 523. 



den V. Brogden, 2 M. & Kob. 113. (.r) Broennenhurgh v. HaycocJc, 



{v) Coates v. Stephens, 2 M. & Holt's Rep. 630 ; and see IFash- 



Rob. 157. burn v. Cuddihi/, 8 Gray, 430; 



(«■) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," Walker v. Hohington, 43 Vt. 608 



362. See also App. to U. K. Ed. (American Cases). 



