ACTIONS AT LAW. 249 



opinion as to its being at the time fit to be hunted, nor was 

 he informed that the plaintiff was considering the purchase 

 of the horse for that purpose. Mr. Atkinson proceeded 

 to state that that action meant one of two things — either 

 that defendant had no skill as a veterinary surgeon ; or 

 that, in the examination of the horse in question, he had 

 been guilty of carelessness. If the defects spoken of 

 were in existence on the 2nd December, they could not 

 have escaped defendant's notice. The horse was an 

 Irish one. Irish horses had coarse hocks, and the 

 animal in question had coarse hocks, and not spavins. 

 It was a young horse, and he suggested that the splint 

 spoken of as having rendered the horse permanently un- 

 sound was caused by the work it did on reaching New- 

 castle. 



The evidence for the defence was that the horse had 

 been bought by Mr. Charles Johnson, at Homcastle Fair, 

 on the previous 13th August. It was an Irish horse, with 

 coarse hocks, and was passed to Mr. Johnson as sound by 

 Mr. Howse, of Lincoln, a well-known veterinary surgeon. 

 Mr. Johnson had the horse in his possession, and trained 

 and schooled it as a hunter from the 13th August to the 

 5th December, and it was never lame during that time. 

 The horse left Malton on the 5th December, sound and 

 free from blemish, beyond what was mentioned. De- 

 fendant gave evidence himself in support of this, and also 

 called Charles Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Walter Tinsley, 

 a groom, Thomas Buckshaw, the well-known jockey, 

 Foord P. Newton, horse dealer, and Robert Wilson, of 

 Settrington, all of whom stated that, on the 5th December, 

 the horse was perfectly sound and free from the blemishes 

 complained of. Defendant's case was also supported by 

 the evidence of the following veterinary surgeons : 

 Messrs. Thomas Bowman, of Driffield ; J. M. Axe, of 

 Doncaster; J. R. Peele, of Durham; and Howse, of 



