MEANING OF WORD "SOUND." 565 



fit for ordinary use. Tlius it is in tlie case of horses, so with respect to 

 oxen. The defendant -warrants that tliey liave no disease which would 

 prevent them from being fattened, and made fit for sale to a butcher, 

 or render them disqualified for travelling; One of the beasts died on 

 the road from unsoundness. Did the unsoundness come on by any 

 accidental circumstances after the sale, as taking cold or drinking cold 

 water? if so, that is not such unsoundness as to affect this verdict; or 

 were the symptoms referable to antecedent disease ? if so, the case is 

 made out as to that animal. For the other two bullocks, you have it in 

 evidence that the butcher who bought them observed their bad con- 

 dition, and it is also said that they were unsound at the time of the sale 

 on Lew Down. The question is, are you satisfied that these beasts had 

 the disease upon them at the time of the sale ? " The jury returned a 

 verdict of £25 for the plaintiff, and a rule to show cause on the ground 

 of misdirection was refused. 



Parhe B. said, " I think no rule ought to be granted in this case. 

 In the case which has been referred to, of Coates v. Stevens, I am 

 reported and correctly reported to have said to the jury 'I have 

 always considered that a mem who hiiijs a horse ivarmnted sound must 

 he taJcen as buijlnrj for immediate use, and he has a right to expect one 

 capable of that use, and of being immediately put to any fair work the 

 owner chooses. The rule as to uns<oundness is, that if at the time of 

 tlie sale the horse has any disease ivliich either aduaJhj does diminish the 

 natural usefidness of the animal ; so as to make him less cajMMe of vjork 

 of any description, or which in its natural progress will diminish the 

 natural usefidness of the animal ; or if the horse has either from disease 

 or accident undergone any alteratioji of structure that either actually docs 

 at tlie time or in its ordinary effects will diminish the natural usefulness 

 of the horse, siwh horse is unsound. If the cough actually existed at 

 the time of sale as a disease so as actually to diminish the natural 

 usefulness of the horse at that time, and to make him then less capable 

 of immediate work, he was then unsound : or if you think the cough, 

 which in fact did afterwards diminish the usefulness of the horse, 

 existed at all at the time of the sale, you will find for the [ilaintiff. I 

 am not now delivering an opinion formed on the moment on a new 

 subject ; it is the result of a full and previous consideration.' 



*' This is the rule I have ever acted on, in cases of unsoundness, 

 although in so doing I must differ from the contrary doctrine laid 

 down by Coleridge J. in the case of Boldero v. Brogden, which has 

 been referred to. In short the word ' soicnd' mea?is tvhat it eo'pi-esses, 

 namely, tfuit the animal is free from disease at the time he is ivarranted 

 to he sound. If, indeed, the disease were not in ordinary cases of a 



