394 UNSOUNDNESS. 



nfirmil y upon him wh ich renders him less fit for preser. t service. It * not ntc* tsa: j 

 that the disorder should be permanent or incurable. While a horse h^s a cough h 

 . unsound, although it may either be temporary or may prove mortal. The horse ic 

 i uestion having been lame at the time of sale, when he was warranted to be sound, 

 his condition subsequently is no defence to the action."* T e decisions of Mr 

 Baron Parke, already referred to, confirm this doctrine. 



NEUROTOMY. A question has arisen how far a horse that has undergone the opera 

 tion of the division of the nerve of the leg (see p. Ill), and has recovered from th 

 lameness with which he was before affected, and stands his work well, may be con 

 sidered to be sound. Chief Justice Best held such a horse to be unsound, and in oui 

 opinion there cannot be a doubt about the matter. The operation of neurotomy does 

 not remove the disease causing the lameness, but only the sensation of pain. A horse 

 on whom this operation has been performed may be improved by it may cease to be 

 lame may go well for many years ; but there is no certainty of this, and he is unsound, 

 within our definition, unless nature gave the nerve for no useful purpose. 



OSSIFICATION OF THE LATERAL CARTILAGES constitutes unsoundriess, as interfering 

 with the natural expansion of the foot, and, in horses of quick work, almost invariably 

 producing lameness. 



PUMICED-FOOT. When the union between the horny and sensible laminae, or little 

 plates of the foot (see p. 304), is weakened, and the coffin-bone is let down, and 

 presses upon the sole, and the sole yields to this unnatural weight, and becomes 

 rounded, and is brought in contact with the ground, and is bruised and injured, that 

 horse must be unsound, and unsound for ever, because there are no means by which 

 we can raise the coffin-bone again into its place. 



QUIDDING. If the mastication of the food gives pain to the animal, in consequence 

 of soreness of the mouth or throat, he will drop it before it is perfectly chewed. This, 

 as an indication of disease, constitutes unsoundness. Quidding sometimes arises from 

 irregularity in the teeth, which wound the cheek with their sharp edges; or a protrud- 

 ing tooth renders it impossible for the horse to close his jaws so as to chew his food 

 thoroughly. Quidding is unsoundness for the time; but the unsoundness will cease 

 wnen the teeth are properly filed, or the soreness or other cause of this imperfect 

 chewing removed. 



QUITTOR is manifestly unsoundness. 



RING-BONE. Although when the bony tumour is small, and on one side only, there 

 is little or no lameness and there are a few instances in which a horse with ring- 

 bone has worked for many years without its return yet from the action of the foot, 

 and the stress upon the part, the inflammation and the formation of bone may acquire 

 a tendency to spread so rapidly, that we must pronounce the slightest enlargement oi 

 the pasterns, or around the coronet, to be a cause of unsoundness. 



SANDCRACK is manifestly unsoundness. It may, however, occur without the sMght- 

 est warning, and no horse can be rejected on account of a sandcrack that has sprung 

 after purchase. Its usual cause is too great brittleness of the crust of the hoof; but 

 there is no infallible method of detecting this, or the degree in which it must exist in 

 order to constitute unsoundness. When the horn round the bottom of the foot nas 

 chipped off so much that only a skilful smith can fasten the shoe without pricking the 

 horse, or even when there is a tendency in the horn to chip and break in a much less 

 degree than this, the horse is unsound, for this brittleness of the crust is a disease of 

 the part, or it is such an altered structure of it as to interfere materially with the use- 

 fulness of the animal. 



SPAVIN. Bone spavin, comprehending in its largest sense every bony tumour ou 

 the hock, is not necessarily unsoundness. If the tumour affects in the slightest degree 

 the action of the horse, it is unsoundness; even if it does not, it is seldom safe to 

 pronounce it otherwise than unsoundness. But it may possibly oe (like splint in the 

 fore-leg) so situated as to have no tendency to affect the action. A veterinary surgeon 

 consulted on the purchase will not always reject a horse because of such a tumour 

 His evidence on a question of soundness will depend on the facts. The situation and 

 history of the tumour may be such as to enable him to give a decisive opinion in a 

 norse going sound, but not often. 



BOG -or BLOOD SPAVIN is unsoundness, because, although it may not bu pr 



* 4 Campbell, 251, Elton v. Brogden. 



