PKOFESSIONAL INCOMPETENCE. 241 



The whole system is wrong. The only time when 

 the opinion of the veterinary surgeon should be taken 

 as conclusive,, is when the sale of the horse is being 

 effected; or, in other words, when the horse is pur- 

 chased subject to the opinion of the veterinary surgeon ; 

 for then the seller can please himself as to whether he 

 will run the risk of the examination. And by the risk 

 I mean the manifest damage done to the horse's cha- 

 racter, if he be rejected as unsound. 



For it places a person in a very equivocal position 

 in the eyes of a great portion of the public, if he subse- 

 quently sell the horse warranted sound after he has 

 been professionally condemned. And even if he suc- 

 ceeds in selling him by incurring this responsibility, he 

 most frequently has to submit to a reduction in price, 

 and becomes a heavy sufferer through the incompetence 

 of the veterinary surgeon. 



Incompetence in the veterinary surgeon, or unfitness 

 for giving an honest and true opinion as to the sound- 

 ness of a horse, is sometimes brought about by igno- 

 rance, but far more frequently by nervousness, or con- 

 stitutional inability to incur the responsibility of passing 

 a horse sound, fearing that something may possibly 

 cause lameness, and that he might thereby lose 

 his character for overlooking some lurking ailment, 

 which could not possibly be detected at the time. 



Thus, if a man passes an unsound horse as sound, he 

 gets heartily laughed at by the seller and execrated by 

 the purchaser ; by the one, because he has been the 

 means of relievin him of an unsound and worthless 



