WARRANTY. 37 



" But although such notice be not essential, 

 yet it is always advisable to be given, as the 

 omitting to do so will furnish at the trial a strong 

 presumption that the horse, at the time of sale, 

 was free from the defect complained of, thus 

 rendering the proof of a breach of warranty more 

 difficult. Common justice and honesty, it has 

 been remarked, require that the commodity 

 should be returned at the earliest period, and 

 before it has been so changed by lapse of time, 

 as to make it impossible to ascertain, by proper 

 tests, what were its original qualities.* 



been unsound at the time of the sale to the plaintiiF." 

 Plaintiff recovered the full price. 



The principle of the Law of Scotland is very different 

 from this ; a purchaser is bound so soon as he discovers a 

 defect, to give notice to the seller, and offer to return him, 

 and if he neglect this, he will be held to have acquiesced, 

 and win be barred from afterwards throwing him back on 

 the seller. The exact time after coming to the knowledge 

 of the defect, within which the purchaser must offer to re- 

 turn, has never been precisely fixed, but there must be no 

 undue delay, and the sooner a purchaser gives notice the 

 better. 



* As in the case of Curtis v. Hannay, " where, after the 

 sale of a horse warranted, the purchaser was informed of a 

 defect in the eyes ; but he kept him for nearly seven weeks, 

 in which time, suspecting the horse to have some defect in 

 his feet, he had applied a blister and other medicines, which 

 D 



