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CHAPTEK 11. 



DEFECTS WHICH ARE ABSOLUTE UNSOUNDNESS. 



I VENTURE to put for^vard the following list of the best- 

 marked and most common defects, the possession of any- 

 one of which, independently of any modifying circum- 

 stance, would render a horse unsound. I have compiled 

 it with due regard to legal precedent, and to the general 

 opinion of the veterinary profession, and have purposely 

 omitted the mention of several diseases — inflammation of 

 the brain, anthrax, lock jaw, influenza, for instance — 

 which would, evidently, unfit the animal for work. 



Asthma. 



Blindness, complete, or partial. 



Bog-spavin. — Oliphant, in Laiv of Horses, states that 

 Bog-spavin is an unsoundness. In the case of Argyll 

 and Bute Lunacy Board v. Hugh Crawford (see Veteri- 

 narian for 1876, page 58), the same view was taken. 

 Hence, I think we should class this ailment as an 

 absolute unsoundness ; although, personally, I would be 

 inclined to disregard, in an aged horse, a small bog- 



