DISEASES AND A11>MFA*TS OF HOUSES, ETC. 



any part of a horse. AVTien then an action is 

 commenced on the advifo of sucli men it often 

 fails, for in giving scientific evidence they mako 

 exhibitions of themselves which are very ludicrous. 

 In Dorking County Court a farmer once brought 

 an action against a smith for ill-shoeing and kill- 

 ing a horse of his recently purchased. The actual 

 facts were, the horse was bought with long stand- 

 ing laminitis, or fever in the feet, and without 

 shoes ; in shoeing the animal it is possible he was 

 pinched and the disease intensified and the horse 

 died ; but the farrier produced in court the coffin 

 bones of one of the horse's feet much corroded and 

 eaten with disease, which he supposed, and said, 

 were so injui'ed by the nails used when shoeing 

 the unfortunate animal, as if that was possible. 

 To afford, then, some sort of guide to any one 

 alleging that a horse sold to him as sound, is, or 

 was unsound, it will be useful to consider from 

 the S3-mptons, or from the statements of the 

 veterinary surgeon — is the disease one which con- 

 stitutes unsoundness in law ? and have there been 

 any decisions to that effect in relation to such 

 particular disease ? 



It may be taken for granted that most horses 

 rejected for breach of warranty, ai-e so rejected 

 because of lameness, and lameness arises from 

 defects, diseases, or malformations of the feet or 

 legs. As a nde, a horse that is lame in its forelegs 

 is injured in the feet, and if it is lame in the hind 



