THE FOOT. 89 



With, and one that, in some cases, exists in so 

 trifling a degree, as almost to escape the ohser- 

 vation of a superficial examiner: while, in other 

 cases, its magnitude is such as to give the foot 

 the appearance of being " rotten for good and 

 all." Sometimes it consists in a very trifling 

 discharge of matter from the cleft of the frog : 

 at other times, the frog is small, ragged, soft, 

 and useless. It is the various degrees in which 

 it exists, that have produced the great diversity 

 of opinion that prevails regarding how far it 

 constitutes unsoundness : one party contending 

 that a tlirush, in every case, makes a horse un- 

 sound ; and another, that in some cases it does 

 not. The question has been tried more than 

 once in a court of justice : but the lawyers aver, 

 that the evidence was so contradictory, that no 

 general rule could be laid down. It is a disease, 

 as I have already observed, so common, and so 

 seldom attended by any apparent bad conse- 

 quences, that few people object to it ; and I 

 am inclined to believe, that the horse is often 

 returned to the seller for having a thrush, when 

 the actual objection is something having more 

 alliance to some fault for which he cannot be 

 returned. The purchaser perhaps rues his 



