unreported cases. 477 



Hyde v. Davis. 



Before Mr. Justice Coleridge, Liverpool Spring Assizes, 

 March 24th, 1819. 

 Wilkins, Serjt., and Aspinall, for tlie plaintiff. 

 Martin, Q.C, and Atkinson, for the defendant. 



This was an action on the Warranty of a Horse. Disease of the 



The plaintiff and defendant were both Horsedealers, the Lungs, 

 plaintiff carrying on business in Liverpool, and the defend- 

 ant at Stratton-on-Harrow, in Herefordshire. 



On the 23rd of August, 1848, the plaintiff purchased a 

 young Chesnut Grelding of the defendant for 62/., with the 

 following "Warranty : " This is to certify that I have this day 

 sold to Mr. James Hyde, Horsedealer, a Chesnut Grelding ; 

 the said Gelding I warrant sound, free from vice, steady in 

 harness, no crib-biter, and no wind-sucker." Next day the 

 Horse was sent to Liverpool, and appeared to have a little 

 Cough. On being put into the plaintiff's stables the Horse 

 looked depressed, and his Cough continued. It was then 

 found that he had a sore throat, and it being supposed that 

 he had taken cold he was treated accordingly, and had some 

 stimulating application given to him for his throat, after 

 which he seemed better. The Horse was afterwards, on the 

 22nd of Sei:)tember, sold at Howden Fair, to Mr. Widdows, 

 Veterinary Surgeon, who took him to Bristol, where he died 

 on the 12th of October. 



After death there was a post-mortem examination of the 

 Horse, and his Lungs were found to be extensively diseased, 

 to be full of tubercles, and of the substance of liver. The 

 Liver was also double its proper size. The Veterinary 

 Surgeons called in were of opinion, and gave evidence to the 

 effect, that the Horse died from disease of the Lungs, and 

 that the disease was of long standing, and that a Horse having 

 such a disease was not sound. 



For the defendant it was contended that the Horse was 

 sound when sold ; that he had been bred by a farmer, who 

 sold him to the defendant ; that the Horse had never done 

 any work, and was five years old. That the greatest care had 

 been taken of him, as he had been bred to sell ; that the 

 cause of his death was sudden inflammation from a cold 

 caught after he had been sold, when travelling to and from 

 Fairs. 



To prove this several Veterinary Surgeons of eminence were 

 called, and among them Professor Dick, of the Veterinary 

 College, Edinburgh, founded by him in 1817, who gave evi- 

 dence to the following effect : — That Disease in the Lungs 

 had frequently come under his notice, as it frequently hap- 

 pens in Horses ; the ordinary causes being changes of tem- 

 perature, particularly a transition from cool air to a close 



