SOUNDNESS 419 



bility. Of course, if an accident happens through a servant exceeding or 

 not acting within the scope of his duties, the master is not liable. What 

 acts are and what are not within the scope of the servant's employment it 

 is not always easy to determine, and is a question that must necessarily 

 depend to a large extent upon the facts of each particular case. 



SOUNDNESS 



What is meant by soundness has been variously stated in works upon 

 the horse and also in decided cases. Aceordina; to Baron Parke in Kid- 

 dell V. Burnard, " the word ' sound ' means what it expresses, namely, that 

 the animal is sound and free from disease at the time it is warranted to be 

 sound"; and in the same case Baron Alderson says, "the word 'sound' 

 means sound, and the only qualification of which it is susceptible arises 

 from the purpose for which the warranty is given. If, for instance, a 

 horse is purchased to be u.sed in a given way, the word ' sound ' means 

 that the animal is useful for that purpose, and ' unsound ' means that 

 he at the time of sale is affected with something which will have the 

 effect of impeding that use." Such may be taken to embody the legal 

 definition of soundness. 



Positive definitions are, however, rarely satisfactory, and for practical 

 purposes a negative definition, that is a definition of unsoundness, is at 

 once easier and better. " Stonehenge" gives the definition of unsoundness 

 as " the existence of disease or alteration of structure which does or will 

 impair the horse's natural usefulness ". Unsoundness, therefore, would 

 appear to be caused by disease or alteration of structure either actually or 

 prospectively impairing a horse's usefulness. The diseases that constitute 

 unsoundness we shall presently consider; what is meant by "alteration of 

 structure " may be disposed of at once. A sound horse has been defined as 

 " a horse in perfect health, with perfect action or motion of all its limbs 

 and organs ". Not that, to be sound, a horse must exactly fulfil these 

 requirements — very few horses do — but a horse may be said to be perfect 

 in health and limb without being ideally perfect. A horse, for instance, 

 with some natural malformation may be perfectly sound, as already inti- 

 mated, since natural malformation does not constitute unsoundness, and 

 yet not be perfect in such a sense. A horse, however, that had been 

 " nerved " would not be sound. In Best v. Osborne (R. v. M. 290), where 

 a horse moved soundly enough, but had been " nerved" to cure it of lame- 

 ness, Mr. Justice Best remarks : '■' Sound means perfect, and a horse de- 

 prived of a useful nerve is imperfect, and has not that capacity for service 

 which is stipulated for in ci warranty of soundness". 



