SOUNDNESS. 17 



attempt to settle the point according to an ad valorum scale ; set- 

 ting every horse down as sound in the eye of the law whose cost 

 or value amounted to a certain sum. This, of course, was law that 

 never could hold in horse transactions. Lord Ellenborough legis- 

 lated with a great deal more knowledge of horseflesh. The law he 

 laid down was, that " any infirmity which rendered a horse less 

 fi.t for present use or convenience constituted unsoundness :" a law 

 which, though it admitted of great latitude of construction, and to 

 some especial cases did not prove applicable at all, was still a 

 wholesome and practicable one in a majority of cases of dispute. 

 Lord Tenterden made but little improvement on it when he pro- 

 nounced every horse unsound that '' that could not go through the 

 same labour as before the existence of the defect or blemish in 

 dispute, and with the same degrees of facility." 



Professor Coleman's notion was, that " every horse ought to be 

 considered sound that could perform the ordinary duties of an ordi- 

 nary horse." This definition is open to the same objections as the 

 judicial laws of Lords Mansfield and Tenterden : mange, diseases 

 of the eye (so long as they are confined to one eye), nay, glanders* 

 and farcy even, in certain stages, and some other diseases, do not 

 incapacitate a horse, and yet they all amount to palpable unsound- 

 ness. On the other hand, many a horse, from age or want of con- 

 dition, or from possessing a constitution naturally weak or washy, 

 is unfitted for what might be considered '' the ordinary duties of 

 an ordinary horse," and yet cannot be called unsound. Then, 

 again, comes for explanation, what are to be regarded as the 07'di- 

 nary duties, and what we are to look upon as an ordinary horse: 

 both presumptions equally indefinable with Lord EUenborough's 

 standard of fitness, and with Lord Tenterden's statu quo " before 

 the existence of the defect or blemish." 



The late Mr. Castley, veterinary surgeon to the 1.2th Lancers — 

 whose opinions on this subject, as well as on every other, his habits 



* A large carrying firm on the western road had, many years since, a great 

 number of glandered horses working in entire teams: these horses were 

 bought in young, at high prices, but from neglect and mismanagement soon 

 became infected with the disease, and in this state worked on, in some 

 instances, for many years. 



VOL, IV. D 



