WHAT CONSTITUTES UNSOUNDNESS. 91 



the animal for the purpose for which he is used, as, for in- 

 stance, if a horse had a slight pimple on his skin, it would not 

 amount to an unsoundness ; but even if such a thing as a pim- 

 ple were on some part of the body where it might have that 

 effect, as, for instance, on a part which would prevent the put- 

 ting of a saddle or bridle on the animal, it would be different. 

 An argument has, however, been adduced from the slightness 

 of the disease and facility of cure ; but if we once let in con- 

 siderations of that kind, where are we to draw the line? A 

 horse may have a cold which may be cured in a day, or a fever 

 which may be cured in a week or month; and it would be 

 difficult to say where to stop. Of course, if the disease be 

 slight, the unsoundness is proportionably so, and so also 

 ought to be the damages." 



And in an American case it is said : "Any disease, infirmity 

 or defect which renders the horse less fit for present use and 

 convenience and not openly and palpably visible, and which 

 is discoverable only by persons of skill and judgment in re- 

 gard to the qualities of horses, constitutes an unsound- 

 ness." 12* 



. But a temporary injury which does not affect a horse's fit- 

 ness for present service is not an unsoundness. ^^^ 



In the case of a slave it was said that "unsoundness con- 

 sists in some organic disease in a formed state, evidenced by 

 symptoms, or some clearly contagious disease, such as measles 

 or small-pox, the infection of which existed in the system at 

 the time of the sale," and it was therefore held that the ques- 

 tion was correctly put to the jury whether he had typhoid 

 fever at the time of the sale and that the inquiry proposed to be 

 made of the doctors as to how long the disease had existed 

 in its incipient state, was properly overruled.^^® But in a 

 later case this rule that "the disease must be in a formed state. 



'^^ Burton v. Young, s Harr. (Del.) 233. 



'^° Roberts v. Jenkins, 21 N. H. 116; Springsteed v. Lawson, 14 Abb. 

 Pr. (N. Y.) 328. 

 ^"^ Stephens v. Chappell, 3 Strobh. (S. C.) 80. 



