18 ON SOUNDNESS. 



find the subject before us involved, no more than we have, 

 in a strictly pathological point of view, at the comparative 

 paucity of sound horses coming under our observation. 

 The separation of monomania in man from oddity or ec- 

 centricity .is hardly more difficult than resolving the ques- 

 tion of soundness in its dubious or transitory form is in 

 horses; a great deal, after all, must be matter of opinion, 

 and those opinions will ever prove best worthy our reliance 

 which are founded on the widest experience, coupled with 

 the best character for honesty. 



No more responsible duty attaches to a professional man 

 than that of giving a certificate of soundness* : by it the war- 

 ranty of the dealer or vender is either confirmed or falsi- 

 fied, the purchase completed or set on one side, the value 

 of the animal either established or destroyed; on all which 

 accounts the veterinarian is pledged, not only to use his 

 hundred eyes in making the examination, but also his 

 maturest judgment in diving into the nature of any unsound- 

 ness he may discover, as well as into its positive or prob- 

 able effect on the action or capabilities of the animal, both 

 present and to come. This leads us, before we close the 

 subject, to inform our readers, that unless a certificate of 

 soundness or nnsoundness be obtained from qualified and 

 actual professional men, it ought not to be of any value, not 

 only from their want of knowledge, but in those cases you 

 will find that the more ignorant the quack is, the more ho 

 will imagine himself capable ; besides, those men, as you 

 will find, overrun almost every city in the United States, 

 put on appearance, such as stylish dress, and drive a dash- 

 ing wagon and pair; all this is done to deceive and attract 

 the public a sort of advertisement thinking, that as he 



* As the United States are so overrun with quacks and impostors personat- 

 ing themselves as Veterinary Surgeons?, certificates on soundness and uusouud- 

 ness can be obtained from such men by purchase, i. e., bribe. 



