RESPONSIBILITY OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. Ill 



A horse sent to be broken must be preserved from all 

 accidents and not exposed to danger. Thus, where a stabler, 

 who received a young mare to train into his stable, under 

 which, he was aware, that a railway company were forming 

 a tunnel by blasting rock, and who did not communicate 

 that fact to the owner, was found liable for injury done to 

 the mare in consequence of a fright occasioned by an explo- 

 sion in the tunnel, (a) Lord President Boyle observed : — 

 " He is bound not only to train it, but to preserve it from all 

 accidents, and the owner of the horse is entitled to rely on 

 this being done. ... By receiving the horse into his stable 

 he took the risk of its safety on himself; " (6) and it was 

 further observed that the stable keeper should have arranged 

 with the railway company to get notice of the time of the 

 explosions, and that, not having done so, he was liable 

 because that was a measure of precaution that should not 

 have been neglected, and also that the fact of the blasting 

 explosions going on should have been communicated to the 

 owner. 



83. Responsibility of Veterinary Surgeons. — Where a 

 horse is sent to a veterinary surgeon's, the sender is entitled to 

 presume that he has the ordinary skill of a man who makes 

 this business his profession, and his obligation is for a due 

 apphcation of the necessary attention, art and skill. The 

 rule is that if an apprentice only be employed, instead of a 

 master, he is responsible for a fair exertion of his capacity, 

 but that where a professional man is employed to perform 

 any specific act, it must be done according to rule, — neither 

 negHgently nor unskilfully,— and if there be no settled 

 rule but a known method of performing it, it must 

 be followed. Further, if an operation be intricate and 

 difficult, a professional man, though he err, is not liable if 

 he fairly exert the best of his skill and judgment ; but he 



(«) Laing v. Darling, 1850, 12 1). 1279. 

 (b) Laing, cit. p. 1284. 



