408 THE MODERN HOUSE DOCTOR. 



disease, in short, from which on exertion he is likely, as our ex- 

 perience tells us, to become lame : such a horse is prospectively 

 unsound. But suppose he have a club foot, a parrot mouth, bent 

 limbs, curved or curby-looking hocks, weak joints, narrow or flat 

 feet, a hip down, &c. — all natural deformities or malformations, 

 none of them coming fairly or popularly under the category of 

 disease — what is to be done in passing judgment upon them ? 

 The equitable adjudication appears to be, as in the case of dis- 

 ease, to declare that such of them constitute unsoundness as are 

 probable or certain to give rise on work to lameness ; but, then, 

 we shall experience difficulty, in some of the cases, in drawing 

 the line between actual lameness and natural failing or weakness. 

 A horse foaled with evident deficiency of physical power, partial 

 or general, can hardly be called unsound ; though should he have 

 that about him which renders it likely he will, when put to work, 

 become actually lame, he ought, assuredly, to be pronounced pro- 

 spectively so. ' Cutting' as the striking of one foot against its 

 fellow leg is called, arise from whatever cause it may, is apt to 

 produce occasional lameness, and, when it does so, is fairly re- 

 garded as a species of prospective unsoundness. Springhalt is 

 action so unnatural that some do not hesitate to affirm it to be a 

 species of unsoundness, though it is a well-known fact that many 

 horses so affected will do the same amount of work as it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose they would or could do were they free from 

 it. After all, as the foregoing observations will abundantly tes- 

 tify, a good deal, in the decisions between soundness and unsound- 

 ness, must be left to the skill and judgment of the professional 

 man : he alone can unriddle the true nature of the case, and 

 form a just estimate of the probabilities of lameness ; and, if he 

 be but trustworthy and honest in his opinions, he is, beyond 

 question, the preferable authority in such cases of appeal for 

 advice. 



" When we, as men acquainted with the animal economy, con- 

 sider the multiplicity of evils even quadruped ' flesh is heir to,' 

 and reflect in how many w r ays its health and action may become 

 impaired, and how graduated down those impairments may be 

 into states of indisputable soundness, we have no right to feel 

 surprised at the intricacy in which we find the surgect before us 



