INTRODUCTION. 



xlix 



their guidance, that would make their certificates less 

 liable to the censure and ridicule they both merit and 

 incur. The occurrence is by no means uncommon for a 

 buyer to send a horse to be examined by a vetermary 

 surgeon, and not feeling satisfied with the opinion he 

 obtains, to send him to another ; and then comparing the 

 certificates of the two, and finding them diametrically 

 opposite in their statements, he finally trusts himself to the 

 warranty of the dealer, purchases the horse, and at the end 

 of six months has had to congratulate himself upon the 

 possession of a sound animal, and the escape he has had in 

 avoiding two unsound certificates " (a). 



(a) The Veterinarian, toI. xix. p. 88. 



