276 ESSENTIALS OF VETERINARY LAW 
or that he might reasonably have known that 
fact. 
229. Bailment, Sale, or Gift. It is sometimes a 
question whether the transaction may be a bail- 
ment, sale, or gift. The distinction is this: Ina 
bailment the ownership remains in the possession 
of the original owner, to whom the bailee must 
return the article bailed. The bailor may sell or 
mortgage his property, subject to certain possible 
liens held by the bailee. In a sale there is an 
exchange of ownership for a compensation. In the 
gift there is an exchange of ownership without 
compensation. In bailment the owner cannot give 
possession to a possible vendee until the termina- 
tion of the bailment. If the bailment is indefinite 
as to time it may be terminated at the will of either 
bailor or bailee; '* but if it be for a given term it 
cannot be terminated before the time set, except 
by the agreement of both bailor and bailee. Thus, 
where sheep were let for one year the court held 
that there was essentially a change of ownership, 
and that the payment for the sheep received was 
to be made in a like number of sheep of the same 
kind one year from the date they were received.!7 
Though the distinction between bailment, sale 
and gift seems simple in the abstract, in practical 
application it may not be so plain. Suppose a poor 
man should lose his cow, and his rich neighbor 
should tell him: ‘‘ You may take one of my cows,”’ 
15 Copeland v. Draper, 157 17 Bellows v. Denison, 9 N. 
Mass. 588, 19 L. R. A. 283. H. 293; Wilson v. Finney, 13 
16 Learned Letcher Lumber Johns. 358. 
Co. v. Fowler, 109 Ala, 169, 19 
So. 396. 
