UNSOUNDNESS. 487 



back, unless he has contracted so to do ; but he is liable in damages. Lord Ellen- 

 borough has completely decided this matter. " I have always held," said he, 

 " that a warranty of soundness is broken, if the animal, at the time of sale, had 

 any infirmity upon him that rendered him less fit for present service. It is 

 not necessary that the disorder should be permanent or incurable. While he 

 has a cough, he is unsound, although that may either be temporary or prove 

 mortal *." 



Roaring, Wheezing, Whistling, High-blowing, and Grunting, being 

 the result of alteration of structure, or disease in some of the air-passages, 

 and interfering with the perfect freedom of breathing, especially when the 

 horse is put on his speed, without doubt constitute unsoundness. There are 

 decisions to the contrary, which are now universally admitted to be erroneous. 

 Broken wind is still more decidedly unsoundness. 



Crib-biting. — Although some learned judges have asserted that crib-biting 

 is simply a trick or bad habit, it must be regarded as unsoundness. This 

 unnatural sucking in of the air must to a certain degree injure digestion. 

 It must dispose to colic, and so interfere with the strength, and usefulness, and 

 health of the horse. Some crib-biters are good goers, but they probably would 

 have possessed more endurance had they not acquired this habit ; and it is a 

 fact well established, that, as soon as a horse becomes a crib-biter, he, in nine 

 cases out of ten, loses condition. He is not to the experienced eye the horse 

 he was before. It may not lead on to strongly-marked disease, or it may rarely 

 do so to any considerable degree ; but a horse that is morbidly deficient in 

 condition must, to that extent, have his capability for extraordinary work 

 diminished, and so be brought within our definition of unsoundness. In its very 

 early stage it may be a mere trick — confirmed, it must have produced morbid 

 deterioration. The wear of the front teeth, and the occasional breaking of 

 them, make a horse old before his time, and sometimes render it difficult or 

 almost impossible for him to graze, when the state of the animal or the con- 

 venience of the owner requires that he should be turned out. 



Curb constitutes unsoundness while it lasts, and perhaps while the swelling 

 remains, although the inflammation may have subsided ; for a horse that has 

 once thrown out a curb is, for a while at least, very liable to do so again, to 

 get lame in the same place on the slightest extra exertion ; or, at all events, 



* In deciding on another case, the same soundness, and I entirely concur in that 



judge said, "I have always held it that a opinion. If the horse emits a loud noise, 



cough is a breach of the warranty. On that which is offensive to the ear, merely from a 



understanding I have always acted, and think bad habit which he has contracted, or from 



it quite clear." It was argued on the other any cause that does not interfere with his 



hand that two-thirds of the horses in London general health, or muscular powers, he is still 



had coughs, yet still the judge maintained that to be considered a sound horse. On the 



the cough was a breach of warranty. When other hand, if the roaring proceeds from any 



it waB farther argued that the horse bad been disease or organic infirmity, which renders 



huntedthedayafterthepurchase, and the cough him incapable of performing the usual func- 



might have been increased by this, the reply was tions of a horse, then it does constitute un- 



singular, butdecisive. "There is no proof that soundness. The plaintiff has not done enough 



he would have got well if he had not been in shewing that this horse was a roarer. To 



hunted." This doctrine is confirmed by prove a breach of the warranty he must go on 



Parke, B., in the first case cited in p. 485. to shew that the roaring was symptomatic of 



In p. 254, it is very properly stated that disease." These extracts are taken from a 



roaring is unsoundness, because it impairs the singular work, not always correct, yet from 



function of respiration. This "was not always which much amusement, and instruction too, 



however, the law of the bench. " Lord El- may be derived — " The Adventures of a Gen- 



lenborough," quoting from Sir James Mans- tleman in Search of a Horse, by Caveat 



field, says, " It has been held by very high Emptor." 

 authority that roaring is not necessarily un- 



