ON SOUNDNESS. 9 



form of the borse is that wbicli will render him likely to 

 suit his purpose, and he should try him sufficiently to as- 

 certain his natural strength, endurance, and manner of go- 

 ing. Unsoundness, we repeat, has reference only to disease, 

 or to that alteration of structure which is connected with, 

 or will produce disease, and lessen the usefulness of the 

 animal." 



In '^ Hippopathology," I find Mr. Percival saying, — *'Ee- 

 luctantly as we enter on this difficult and much debated 

 question, we feel it our duty, in a work on lameness, to 

 make some observations on the subject, though these ob- 

 servations will be rather of a general, than of a particular 

 nature, and have special reference to soundness regarded 

 as the converse of or opposite state to lameness. No person 

 buys or sells a horse without feeling some concern as to the 

 soundness of the animal; the purchaser is apprehensive lest 

 his new horse should from any cause turn out unserviceable, 

 or unequal to that for the performance of which he has 

 bought him; the vender is apprehensive, either lest the an- 

 imal, in other hands, should not prove that sound and ef- 

 fective servant he conceived or represented him to be, or 

 lest some unrepresented or concealed fault or defect, he is 

 aware the animal possesses, may now, in his new master's 

 bands, be brought to light. Soundness, as opposed to ac- 

 tual or decided lameness (or as synonymous with good 

 health), is a state too well understood to need any definition 

 or description : when we come, however, to draw a line be- 

 tween soundness and lameness in their less distinguish- 

 able forms — to mark the point at which one ends and the 

 other begins — we meet a difficulty; and this difficulty in- 

 creases when we find ourselves called on to include under 

 our denomination of unsoundness, that which is likely, or 

 has a tendency to bring forth lameness. 



