UNllEPORTED CASES. 475 



day trotted on hard ground, was for the first time found to go 

 lame. A Veterinary Surgeon's opinion was then taken, and 

 he declared the Horse to be unsound from disease in the hoof, 

 produced by previous acute fever, and thereupon the Horse 

 was, with his Certificate, returned to plaintift', who paid back 

 to Mr. Hardy the 200/. purchase-money. On the 6th of No- 

 vember, 1846, the defendant was made aware by letter of what 

 had taken place, and called upon to receive back the Horse, 

 otherwise he would be sold by auction, and the defendant held 

 responsible for any difference in price. At first the defendant 

 did not rej)ly, but at length he wrote to regret what had hap- 

 pened, and to say that the Horse had been in his possession 

 since he was two years old, and never had been lame except 

 for a day from a thorn picked up when hunting, and that he 

 had had no disease at all whilst in his possession. The de- 

 fendant declining to take back the Horse, he was ultimately 

 sold at Dickson's Repository for 50/. I3s. 6d. net, and for the 

 diiference between that sum and his cost price the present 

 action was brought. 



To prove the alleged unsoundness a number of Veterinary 

 Surgeons were examined, and the substance of their evidence 

 was, that, judging Irom the flatness of the Horse's soles, and 

 the sunken and ribbed appearance of the wall of the hoof of 

 both the fore feet, they Avere afi^ected by disease, the off one 

 being the most so of the two. That the disease Chronic Lami- 

 nitis consisted of a partial destruction by acute inflammation 

 of the lamince of the foot, being that internal substance which 

 connected the sensitive parts with the insensitive horny cover- 

 ing; and there was a consequent unnatural pressure down- 

 wards of the coffin bone, which in time caused the sole of the 

 hoof to become flat. This disease they also proved rendered 

 the Horse decidedly unsound and liable to frequent attacks of 

 lameness, and must have existed for some considerable time, 

 eight or ten months ; and they added, that, as previous acute 

 inflammation was the original cause of the disease, the Horse 

 must have shown lameness before, and to such an extent as 

 to be at once perceived. The further evidence was that of 

 four or five Horsedealers, of whom the two fii-st proved that 

 whilst on different occasions looking at the Horse, with the 

 object of purchasing him before he was sold to the plaintiff, 

 each observed particularly to the defendant the appearance 

 of his fore feet, upon which the defendant said to one of them 

 that the Horse had never been lame except once, when he 

 had the fever in his feet. Two other witnesses then proved 

 that in 1845 the same Horse had been sold to one of them 

 with a Warranty of Soundness, and that when the other went 

 to receive him at a place about twenty-two miles distant 

 from the plaintiff's residence, he found the Horse qiiite lame, 

 and refused to accept him ; and the residt was, that the Horse 



