8 ON SOUNDNESS. "^ 



isbes must be specified in the warranty, in order to guard 

 against them. With regard to the greater number of points, 

 veterinary surgeons are pretty well agreed as to what is un- 

 soundness and what is not; but there are cases in which there 

 is a difference of opinion ; some practitioners, perhaps, are 

 too strict in their opinions, and others not strict enough, 

 but there are many, it is to be hoped, who preserv^e the 

 happy medium." 



Mr. Youatt says, — '' The horse is unsound that labors 

 under disease, or has some alteration of structure which 

 ,does interfere, or is likely to interfere, with his natural use- 

 fulness. Tlie term natural usefulness nmst be borne in 

 mind, as it has received high judicial sanction. Coates vs. 

 Stephens, 2 Moody and Robinson, 157; Scholefield vs. Eobb, 

 ibid. 210. The following extract is taken from a note to 

 one of those cases : ' Asit may noiv he considered as settled 

 laiv, that the breach of a tvarranty or soimdness does not 

 entitle the purchaser to return the horse, but only to recover 

 the difference of value of the horse, with or without the par- 

 ticular unsoundness, the question of temporary maladies, 

 producing no permanent deterioration of the animal, zvould, 

 generally speaking, only involve a right to damages merely 

 nominal.^ Therefore natural usefulness has been decided on, 

 as one horse may possess great speed, but soon is knocked 

 up ; another will work all day, but cannot be got beyond a 

 snail's pace; a third with a heavy tread is liable to stumble, 

 and is continually putting to hazard the neck of his rider ; 

 another, with an irritable constitution, and a loose, washy 

 form, loses his appetite and begins to scour if a little extra 

 work is exacted from him. The term unsoundness must 

 not be applied to either of these ; it would be opening far 

 too widely a door to disputation and endless wranghng. 

 The buyer can discern, or ought to know, whether the 



