SOUNDNESS, AND PURCHASE AND SALE 683 



Reference;? have been made to a number of causes of unsoundness in the 

 course of these pages, and following the plan adopted in previous editions, a 

 list of diseases and accidents which have been settled as sufficient to entitle 

 the purchaser to return a horse if warranted sound, and a further summary 

 of those defects which are cither insufficient or doubtful causes for re- 

 jection are given. The law of warranty is very unsatisfactory, and differs 

 in England and Scotland, while custom to a great extent supplants law in 

 Ireland. So well has it become known, that the custom of warranty is fast 

 dying out, and in its stead a reasonable trial and veterinary surgeon's 

 examination as to soundness is generally accepted by the purchaser, and 

 agreed to by the vendor. A warranty in England holds good " for ever,'' 

 while in Scotland it covers a lunar month, but neither is fair to the seller, 

 as a horse may be perfectly sound and free from vice, and all or nearly 

 all that the seller represents him, and in a day or a week be lame from 

 accident or disease, or spoilt by bad handling. The vendor in giving a 

 wari'anty undertakes an unfair risk, making himself responsible for the folly 

 and incompetence of the purchaser or his servants. 



The definition of unsoundness is, " the existence of disease or alteration 

 of structure which does or will impair the horse's natural usefulness." The 

 judge's definition usually accepted by the veterinary schools is "anything 

 that does now or may hereafter interfere with the usefulness of the animal." 



Vice also may be defined, on a similar principle, as " the prevalence of a 

 habit which interferes with the horse's natural usefulness." But these 

 definitions must be taken with some modifications, for there is not one horse 

 in a hundred which does not possess some disease or vice likely to impair 

 his general usefulness to some slight extent ; indeed, the proportion of 

 strictly sound horses may be considered to be much smaller even than this. 

 A bad feeder is so generally from a disordered state of stomach, and such a 

 horse cannot stand work like one which will consume double the quantity of 

 corn, yet he would not be considered unsound ; nor would a horse be re- 

 turnable as vicious if he showed the usual symptoms of being "fresh," 

 though they might impair his usefulness in carrying a timid rider. But 

 subject to such modifications, the above definitions may be accepted as 

 sufficient to make intelligible the terms, Unsoundness and Vice. 



The following list comprises the diseases and injuries which have been 

 settled as sufficient to entitle the purchaser to return a horse warranted 

 sound : — 



Bog spavin, when it is so severe as clearly to interfere with the action 

 of the joint; and blood spavin, as marking an • aggravated form of the 

 same disease. 



Break-down, even though the horse is restored so as to run without 

 lameness. 



Broken wind. 



Cataract, in any degree. 



Corns, unless very trifling ; but they should be discovered within a few 

 days of the sale, or it may be alleged that they have been produced by 

 subsequent mismanagement. 



Cough, as long as it lasts. A horse with chronic cough is clearly 

 returnable. 



Curbs constitute unsoundness ; but they must be shown to exist at the 



