98 WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



the actual liealing of tlie part. The matter which is 

 thrown out in wounds of the foot is usually pent up there, 

 and increases in quantity, and thus m^ges its way in every 

 direction ; it forces the fleshy little plates of the coffin 

 bone from the horny ones of the crust, or the horny sole 

 from the fleshy sole, or even eats deeply into the internal 

 parts of the foot. These Pipes or Sinuses rim in every 

 direction, and constitute the essence of Quiff or (s). 

 Rat -tails. On the back part of the leg are sometimes excrescences 



called by Farriers Raf-faih, from the appearance they 

 give the hair. They generally yield to mild treatment (f), 

 and as they are unlikely, from their situation, to impede 

 the natural usefulness of the Horse, it is only in a bad case 

 that they can be considered Unsouiidjiess. 

 Rearing. Iieari)i(/, which is unprovoked by the bruising and 



laceration of the mouth, is an inveterate and dangerous 

 bad habit {u), and a Vice. 

 Rheumatism. In the case of Couch V. Calbrcfh (jc) it was held, by the 

 Supreme Court of South Carolina, that in questions of 

 unsoundness, where the disease is chronic, like rheumatism, 

 it is not necessary to show that the symptoms existed at 

 the time of sale, for subsequent incidents and appearances 

 may show that the disease existed before the sale, although 

 the symptoms had not then been observed. 

 Ring--bonc. Ring-bone commences in one of the pasterns, and 



usually about the pastern joint ; but it rapidly spreads, 

 and involves not only the pastern bones, but the carti- 

 lages of the foot. The pastern first becomes connected 

 together by bone, instead of ligament, and thence results 

 what is called an Anchylosed or Fixed joint. Its motion 

 is lost, and the disease proceeds to the cartilages of the 

 foot and to the union between the lower Pastern and 

 the Coffin and Navicular bones ; the motion of these parts 

 is impeded or lost, and the whole of this part of the foot 

 becomes one mass of spongy bone. When the bony 

 tumour is small and on one side only, there is Httle or no 

 lameness, yet from the action of the foot, and the stress 

 upon the part, the disease has a great tendency to spread, 

 after there has been the slightest enlargement either of 

 the pasterns or round the coronet [y) . The law respecting 



(«) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," (.c) 11 Rich. Law, S. C. 9. 



302. iy) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 



{t) Ibid 275. 254, 365. 



\i,) Ibid. 337. 



