190 UNSOUNDNESS AND VICE. 



subdued, constitutes a fraudulent practice, which 

 is occasionally resorted to by those who are un- 

 principled. 



Keeping a horse on short rations, and depriving 

 it of corn, constitute two of the surest means of 

 controlling its vicious habits, if they are of a 

 kicking, biting, etc., nature. 



Although capable of wide interpretation, the 

 word unsoundness means that the animal has some 

 disease, active or latent, or the effects of some disease 

 about it that is liable to— though it may not neces- 

 sarily — interfere with its present or subsequent 

 utility. 



Oliphant, in his " Law of Horses," defines a 

 horse to be " sound " when he is free from hered- 

 itary disease, is in the possession of his natural and 

 constitutional health, and has as much bodily per- 

 fection as is consistent ivith his statural formation. 



This definition is by no means free from objection, 

 and is not as serviceable as the definition of Mr. 

 Baron Parke, who said that " the word sound 

 means what it expresses, namely, that the animal 

 is sound and free from disease at the time he is 

 warranted." 



Lord Ellenborough decided that " to constitute 

 unsoundness, it is not essential that the infirmity 



