UNSOUNDNESS. 393 



fail on extraordinary exertion. A horse, however, is not returnable, aitiiough he 

 should spring a curb five minutes after the purchase ; for it is done in a moment, and 

 does not necessarily indicate any previous unsoundness or weakness of the part. 



Cutting, as rendering a horse liable to serious injury of the legs, and indicating 

 that lie is either weak, or has an awkwardness of gait inconsistent with safety, pro- 

 duces, rather than is, unsoundness. Many horses go lame for a considerable period 

 after culling themselves severely; and others have dropped from the sudden agony, 

 and endangered themselves and their riders. As some doubt, however, exists on this 

 subject, and as it is a very material objection to a horse, cutting, when evident, should 

 have its serious consequences provided against by a special warranty. 



Enlarged Glands. — The enlargement of the glands under the jaw has not been so 

 much considered as it ought to have been in our estimate of the soundness of the 

 horse. Simple catarrh will occasionally, and severe affection of the chest will gene- 

 rally, be accompanied by swelling of these glands, which does not subside for a con- 

 siderable time after the cold or fever has apparently been cured. To slight enlarge- 

 ments of the glands under the jaw much attention need not be paid ; but if they are of 

 considerable size, and especially if they are tender, and the glands at the root of the 

 ear partake of the enlargement, and the membrane of the nose is redder than il should 

 be, we should hesitate in pronouncing that horse to be sound. We must consider the 

 swelling as a symptom of disease. 



Enlarged Hock. — A horse with enlarged hock is unsound, the structure of this 

 complicated joint being so materially affected that, although the horse may appear for 

 a considerable time to be capable of ordinary work, he will occasionally fail even in 

 that, and a few days' hard work will always lame him. 



The Eves. — That inflammation of the eye of the horse which usually terminates in 

 blindness of one or both eyes, has the peculiar character of receding or disappearing 

 for a time, once or twice, or thrice, before it fully runs its course. The eye, after an 

 attack of inflammation, regains so nearly its former natural brilliancy that a person 

 even well acquainted with horses will not always recognise the traces of former dis- 

 ease. After a time, however, the inflammation returns, and the result is inevitable. 

 A horse that has had one attack of this complaint, is long afterwards unsound, how- 

 ever perfect the eye may seem to be, because he carries about with him a disease that 

 will probably again break out, and eventually destroy the sight. Whether, therefore, 

 he may be rejected or not, depends on the possibility of proving an attack of inflam- 

 mation of the eye, prior to the purchase. Next to direct evidence of this are appear- 

 ances about the eye, of which the veterinary surgeon at least ought not to be ignorant. 

 Allusion has been made to them in page 89. They consist chiefly of a puckering 

 of the lids towards the inner corner of one or both eyes — a difference in the size of 

 the eyes, although perhaps only a slight one, and not discovered except it be looked 

 for — a gloominess of the eye — a dulness of the iris — a little dulness of the transparent 

 part of the eye generally — a minute, faint, dusky spot, deep in the eye, and generally 

 with little radiations of white lines proceeding from it. If these symptoms, or the 

 majority of them, existed at the time of purchase, the animal had assuredly been dis- 

 eased before, and was unsound. Starting has been considered as an equivocal proof. 

 It is usually an indication of defective sight, but it is occasionally a trick. Connectr 

 ed, however, with the appearances just described, it is a very strong corroborative 

 proof. 



Lameness, from whatever cause arising, is unsoundness. However temporary it 

 may be, or however obscure, there must be disease which lessens the utility of the 

 horse, and renders him unsound for the time. So says common sense, but there are 

 contradictory decisions on the case. " A horse labouring under a temporary injury of 

 hurt, which is capable of being speedily cured or removed, is not, according to Ciiie ' 

 Justice Eyre, an unsound horse; and where a warranty is made that such a horse i-; 

 sound, it is made without any view to such an injury ; nor is a horse so circumstanced 

 within the meaning of the warranty. To vitiate the warranty, the injury the iiorse 

 had sustained, or the malady under which he laboured, ought to he of a permanent 

 nature, and not such as may arise from a temporary injury or accident."* 



On the contrary. Lord EUenborough says: "I have always held, and now hold, 

 that a warranty of soundness is broken, if the animal at the time of sale has any 



* 2 Espin. Rep. 673, Garment v. Barrs. 

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