44 DISEASES OF THE AIR-PASSAGKS. 



his wind. In order to satisfy yourself of that^ you had 

 better give him a ' splitting gallop/ and, if practicable, ou 

 soft ground or up hill : this is your only sure mode of de- 

 tecting minor imperfections in wind/' I have heard Mr. 

 Sewell, the late Professor, say, " that the best trial we can 

 subject draft-horses, suspected roarers, to, is to put them 

 in harness, and compel them to drag heavy loads :'' and I 

 quite agree with him ; it being in laborious draft in parti- 

 cular that the respiratory powers are called into play. 



To CONCEAL IMPERFECTIONS IN THE WIND, a kuavish 



horsedealer will, when he is showing you a roarer, take 

 especial care that the horse both leaves and approaches you 

 at a moderate pace, and does not strike into the gallop until 

 he be removed to too great a distance for you to hear the roar. 

 He will likewise, when dismounted, intimidate you, if he 

 can, from approaching the animal : in fact, he will practise 

 every device rather than suffer you to put the horse fairly to 

 any reliable test. 



Does roaring constitute unsoundness ? — This is a 

 point on which the same judge (Lord Ellenborough) has de- 

 livered two opinions; the latter upsetting the former one, 

 and establishing roaring, for the time to come, as unsound- 

 ness. The first opinion was given in 1810. His lordship 

 then said, ^' It has been held by very high authority, that 

 roaring is not necessarily unsoundness, and I entirely concur 

 in that opinion." In 1817, his lordship pronounced, in re- 

 ference to a similar case, that, " if a horse be affected by any 

 malady which renders him less serviceable for a permanency, 

 I have no doubt that it is unsoundness. I do not go by the 

 noise but by the disorder." And from that time to the 

 present, roaring has been admitted, in court, to call for a 

 verdict of unsoundness. 



M. Huzard, jun., a French veterinarian, has penned the 

 following sensible observations on this question: — ^' If roar- 

 ing were an accompaniment of ordinary respiration, the evil 

 would be discoverable at the time of purchase : bat, in con- 

 sequence of its requiring exertion to elicit it, the purchaser 

 who does not put the animal to that test cannot become 



