PRICE. 699 



the defects which he possesses, and which might be unsoundness ; 

 and should finally express the writer's opinion. It might, for in- 

 stance, run as follows : 



Address 



Date 



" I have examined to-day, at the request of Mr. Blank, a brown 

 cart mare, five years old, called Nancy, the property of Mr. Dash, 

 of the Greyhound Hotel, Banktown, Brookshire. She is fifteen 

 hands three inches high; has a small star on her forehead; and 

 white girth-marks on her near side. 



" She has capped hocks ; and has a splint on her near fore. 



" In my opinion she is sound. 



" A. B. Case, M.R.C.V.S." 



If the animal possesses some defect which of itself constitutes 

 unsoundness, this fact might be remarked upon, and the last two 

 paragraphs might be merged into one, which might rim as follows : 



" She has capped hooks ; and has a spavin on her off hind. She 

 is therefore unsound." 



Price. 



Some practitioners erroneously think that they ought to be 

 stricter about giving a certificate of soundness for a horse which, 

 if passed, would be sold for a high figure, than for one of less 

 value. They have, on the contrary, nothing to do with the animal's 

 jDrice, which is in no way a veterinary matter. The following 

 remarks made by Holt, on " Broennenburgh v. Haycock " (" Holt's 

 Reports of Cases at Nisi Prius," vol. 1, p. 632) refer to this point : 

 " It was formerly, indeed, a current opinion, that a sound price was 

 per se an implication of warranty. In other words, that a sound 

 price given for a horse was tantamount to a warranty of soundness. 

 But, when this notion came to be judicially examined, it was found 

 to be so loose and unsatisfactory, and so much at variance with the 

 principles of the English law in contracts of buying and selling, 

 that Lord Mansfield [in " Stuart v. Wilkins," " Douglas's Reports by 

 Frere," vol. I, p. 18] rejected it as a popular error; and said, that 

 there must either be an express warranty of soundness, or fraud in 

 the seller, in order to maintain the action." See, also, " Parkinson 

 V. Lee " (" East's Reports of Cases," vol. 2, p. 314). If, then, price 

 has nothing to do with soundness, the veterinary surgeon who is 

 concerned only with the question of soundness, should, we may 

 feel assured, allow no consideration of price to influence him in 

 his decision, as to the soundness or unsoimdness of the animal he 

 is examining. 



