THE MODERN HOUSE DOCTOR. 403 



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

 considered sound that could perform the ordinary duties of an 

 ordinary 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 unsoundness. On the other hand, many a horse, from 

 age or want of condition, or from possessing a constitution natu- 

 rally 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 ordinary duties, and what we are to look 

 upon as an ordinary horse; both presumptions equally inde- 

 finable with Lord Ellenborough'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 12th Lancers, 

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

 habits of acute and accurate observation rendered of peculiar 

 value to us, — felt inclined, to use his own words, ' to steer a 

 middle course ; ' in accordance with which he ' ventured on the 

 following propositions : ' — ' 1st. That all recognized disease con- 

 stitutes unsoundness for the time being.' ' 2dly. That changes 

 of structure or an altered condition of parts, and derangement or 

 impairment of function, are allowed by all to be our two great 

 landmarks in conducting examinations for soundness.' The first 

 of these ' propositions ' is fairly inclusible in the second ; all dis- 

 ease consisting either in change of structure or change of func- 

 tion, and most disease involving both these changes. And in re- 

 gard to the second rule for our guidance, obvious and decisive as 

 are changes of structure combined with deranged or impaired 

 function of parts in general, there are still some of that trifling 



* 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 in- 

 fected with the disease, and in this state worked on, in some instances, for 

 many years. 



