626 ON SOUNDNESS, AND PURCHASE AND SALE. 



warranted to be in immediate condition to follow the hounds. The mys- 

 teries of condition, as has been shown in a former part of the work, are 

 not suflficientlj unravelled. 



In London, and in most great towns, there are repositories for the period- 

 ical sale of horses bj auction. They are of great convenience to the seller, 

 who can at once get rid of a horse with which he wishes to part, without 

 ivaiting month after month before he obtains a purchaser, and he is reKeved 

 from the nuisance or fear of having, the animal retui-ned on account of 

 breach of the warranty, because in these places only two days are allowed 

 for the trial, and if the horse is not returned within that period, he cannot 

 be afterwards retui-ned. They are also convenient to the purchaser, who 

 can thus in a large town soon find a horse that will suit him, and which, 

 from this restriction as to returning the animal, he vnll obtain twenty or 

 thirty per cent, below the dealers' prices. Although an auction may seem 

 to ofier a fair and open competition, there is no place at which it is more 

 necessary for a person not much accustomed to horses to take with him an 

 experienced friend, and, when there, to depend on his own judgment, or 

 that of his friend, heedless of the observations or manoeuvres of the by- ' 

 standers, the exaggerated commendation of some horses, and the thousand 

 faults found with others. There are always numerous groups of low 

 dealers, copers, and chaunters, whose business it is to delude and deceive. 

 Very difierent views will be found to be taken of the question of soundness 

 in the present day to those existing some years ago ; and very difierent 

 conclusions are now dravm from the indications of disease to what would 

 then have been done. The leading point in all cases used to be to decide 

 how long the disease had existed — if, for instance, a spavin is discovered 

 in an animal two months after purchase, ergo it must have existed at the 

 time of purchase ; if a young plethoric animal is taken from a dealer's 

 stable some distance home, and a few days or a week after is found to be ill 

 — sufiering from disease of the throat, lungs or chest, which disease may 

 result in a fatal termination, then the seeds of the disease must have existed 

 prior to the sale, and, that being the case, the horse must have been 

 unsound, and the seller must bear the loss ; or, again, the new purchase is 

 discovered to be a roarer, or lame, or losing his condition within a few 

 ■weeks of the transaction, either of which is a most grievous annoyance to 

 the purchaser ; but, fortunately for him, the cause of these afflictions must 

 liave existed at the time of purchase, and therefore the animal can be 

 returned ; and not only were these views surmised among purchasers, but 

 they were too often adopted by the professional man by whom the horse 

 is examined. Now a day, however, these things have altered a little ; the 

 question no longer is, how long must the cause of unsoundness have existed ? 

 but, in how short a space of time may it have been produced ? But this 

 difference in the mode of viewing the matter may cause remarkably diffe- 

 rent results. A horse may have a splint developed in a few hours ; in 

 eight-and-forty he may become a roarer ; a spavin is thrown out in the 

 course of a day or two ; a cui'b may be sprung in a moment; and disease of 

 the throat or lungs, which may terminate fatally, or at any rate seriously 

 deteriorate the value of the horse, may have commenced within twelve 

 hours of his leaving the stable of the seller ; and these views must have 

 this important efi"ect, the absolute proof of the state of the animal at the 

 time of sale, for, however shortly after the unsoundness may be discovered 

 to exist, there has been sufficient time both for its comniencement and its 

 development ; and, therefore, unless its existence can be clearly proved at 

 the time of sale, it is not, of itself, a proof of unsoundness at the time 

 of purchase. 



