xlvi 



INTKODUCTION. 



Veterinary 

 certificates. 



Veterinary 

 opinion. 



which experience alone can supply. Because purchasing 

 a horse is a very different affair from buying a manu- 

 factured article ; for, in the latter case, there are certain 

 trade prices, and a corresponding quality of goods, which 

 every man expects, and of which any ordinary man 

 can judge ; and, therefore, as each party has in gene- 

 ral a sufficiently competent knowledge, very few disputes 

 arise. 



When a horse is free from hereditary cliaease, is in the 

 possession of his natural and constitutional health, and has 

 as much bodily perfection as is consistent with his natural 

 formation, a veterinary surgeon may safely certify him 

 to be sound. But as there is in most horses some slight 

 alteration in structure, either from disease, accident, or 

 work, a veterinary surgeon in giving his certificate had 

 much better describe the actual state of the horse, and 

 the probable consequences, without mentioning soundness or 

 unsoundness at all, and so let the purchaser buy him or not 

 as he may be advised. Because in such a case a straight- 

 forward statement would be made, and a man in the 

 veterinary profession would not be called upon in an off- 

 hand manner to decide questions which are of the greatest 

 nicety, being full of uncertainty, and upon which no con- 

 clusive decision can safely be arrived at. For we find the 

 greater the difficulty, the more likely is a decision (if come 

 to at all) to be the result of a slight preponderance of one 

 over each of many Gonflicting opinions. 



We find that a man will sometimes warrant a horse in 

 consequence of a veterinary opinion given in an off-hand 

 manner, either without a sufficient examination of the 

 horse having been made, or sometimes in the face of actual 

 disease ; for the giving a warranty seems to be considered 

 quite a trifling matter. Thus, in the case of Hall v. 

 Bogerson, tried at the Newcastle Spring Assizes, 1847 

 it appeared that a witness, who was a veterinary surgeon, 

 had taken off the horse's shoes, and examined his feet 

 when he found a shght convexity of sole. The owner then 

 asked him if he would be justified in warranting the horse 



