68 



WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



lens held to be 

 unsoundness. 



Blood and bog 

 spa\'in. 



Bone-spavin. 



tute a breach of warranty in cases of cloudiness of the eye or 

 opacity of the lens, after the sale, there must either be proof 

 of an attack of inflammation before sale, or veterinary sur- 

 geons must be produced who will distinctly state that, 

 from the appearance of the eye, there must hare been 

 inflammation before the time of sale. The following case is 

 in point : — 



A horse was bought by the plaintiff in April, warranted 

 sound and quiet. He was sent on the 18th of June to be 

 examined by an eminent veterinary surgeon, who detected 

 an " opacity of the crystalline lens" m the near eye, and pro- 

 nounced it his decided opinion that the defect mtist have 

 been of long standing, and that in fact it was chronic ; to 

 produce which state, it must have required a great many 

 successive attacks of inflammation. It might have been 

 produced in six months, and it was a sort of thing which 

 few dealers would have been likely to fi.nd out. Another 

 veterinary surgeon had examined the horse, and did not 

 see the defect, but could not swear that it did not then 

 exist. On this evidence a verdict was found for the 

 plaintiff {a). 



Attached to the extremities of most of the tendons, and 

 between the tendons and other parts, are little bags con- 

 taining a mucous substance to lubricate the tendons so as 

 to prevent friction. From violent exertion these little bags 

 are liable to enlargement, of which wind-galls {h) and 

 thoroughpins (c) are instances. There is one of these bags 

 inside the bending of the hock; this sometimes becomes 

 considerably increased in size, and the enlargement is called 

 a bog-spavin. When the vein, which passes over this bag, 

 is distended with accumulated blood, it is called a blood- 

 spavin, and is therefore the consequence of bog-spavin, with 

 which it is very often confounded {d) ; they generally pro- 

 duce lameness, and constitute unsoundness. 



Bone-spavin is an affection of the bones of the hock joint. 

 When an undue weight and concussion are thrown on the 

 inner splint bone, they cause an inflammation of the carti- 

 laginous substance, which unites it to the shank bone ; the 

 consequence of which is, that the cartilage is absorbed and 

 bone deposited, so that the union between the splint-bone 

 and shank becomes bony instead of cartilaginous, and the 

 degree of elastic action between them is destroyed. A 



(aj Brigga v. Baker, before Chief 

 Justice Tindal, Nov. 29, 1846. 

 [b) "Wind-galls, post. 



(e) Thoroughpin, post. 

 (d) Lib. 17. K. " The Horse," 

 119. 



