LEGAL DEPARTMENT. 633 



Agriculture, the owner or person in charge of the diseased animal has 

 been guilty of an offense against this act. The Governor in Council may 

 from time to time prohibit the importation of horses, cattle, or other ani- 

 mals, or of flesh, hides, hoofs, horns, or of hay, straw, fodder, or other 

 articles from any place or places for such period as he deems to be neces- 

 sary for the purpose of pre\-enting the introduction of any infectious 

 or contagious diseases among animals in Canada. 



Every company and every person carrying, for hire, animals to or in 

 Canada shall thoroughly cleanse and disinfect in such manner as the Gov- 

 ernor in Council mav direct, all steamships, steamers, vessels, boats, 

 pens, carriages, trucks, and vehicles used by such company or persons 

 for the carrying of animals, and the Governor in Council may cause such 

 steamer to be detained in such place as to him seems meet until it is so 

 cleansed and disinfected. 



Provision is also made for subjecting animals to quarantine, the sepa- 

 ration of diseased animals, the purification of infected places, the prohibit- 

 ing or regulating the holding of markets, fairs, exhibitions, or sales of ani- 

 mals, the declaring a market, yard, steamship, etc., to be infected, the 

 slaughtering of the animals as provided by the act, and for the requiring 

 of proof that the horse or other animals being imported have not been 

 brought from any place or locality where any contagious or infectious 

 disease is existing. 



WARRANTY OF THE SOUNDNESS OF ANIMALS. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES SOUNDNESS. 



Local custom and usage, as well as circumstances of each case, deter- 

 mine the meaning of the word sound, when it is applied to the sale and 

 warranty of horses, sheep, and cattle. 



The general rule implies the absence of any disease in the animal at 

 the time which actually decreases its value or its natural usefulness. 

 There was a great difference, formerly, among judges, as to what consti- 

 tuted a breach of warranty of soundness, whether the disease must be 

 temporary or permanent in its nature. 



The law in Ontario follows the English rule, which seems logical and 

 reasonable, and that is : — 



Any infirmity which renders an animal unfit in any degree for present 

 use is unsoundness. In the case of Elton v. Brogden, 4 Camp, 281, it 



