SPECIAL WAEEANTY. 11 



warranty of soundness. But, when this notion came to 

 be judicially examined, it was found to be so loose and 

 unsatisfactory, and so much at variance with the prin- 

 ciples of the English law in contracts of buying and 

 selling, that Lord Mansfield (in Stuart v. Wilhins *) re- 

 jected it as a popular error ; and said, that there must 

 either be an express warranty of soundness, or fraud in 

 the seller, in order to maintain the action." See, also, 

 Parkinson v. Lee.'\ If, then, price has nothing to do 

 with soundness, the veterinary surgeon who is concerned, 

 only, with the question of soundness, should, we may 

 feel assured, allow no consideration of price to influence 

 him in his decision, as to the soundness or unsoundness 

 of the animal he is examining. 



Special warranty. — " It is considered that horses with 

 curbs may be passed as sound, on a special warranty 

 being given, that, should the curb cause lameness within 

 reasonable time (which time should be fixed), the seller 

 should be responsible" (Oliphant's Laiu of Horses). With 

 respect to the foregoing extract, I must say, that I cannot 

 understand how the fact of the seller giving a special 

 warranty can, with any show of reason, influence the 

 examiner, who has nothing to do with any assertions 

 made by the seller, or with any arrangement entered 

 into between him and the buyer. In such a case, if it 



* Douglas's Eeports by Frere, vol. 1, p. 18. 

 t East's Reports of Cases, vol. 2, p. 314. 



