90 



WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



great tendency to spread, after there has been the slightest 

 enlargement either of the pasterns or round the coronet {y). 

 The law respecting bone-spavin (2) appears on principle to 

 be exactly applicable to ringbone, the slightest appearance 

 of which must be considered an unsoimdness, whether it 

 produce lameness or not. 

 Koaring. Roaring is so called from a peculiar sound uttered by a 



horse with this disease, when briskly trotted or galloped, 

 particularly up hiD. In moderate exercise it is scarcely or 

 not at all perceived ; but in brisk exercise it may be heard 

 at the distance of several yards. The most general cause 

 of roaring is a tough and viscid substance which is thrown 

 out in the shape of fluid, and adheres to the side of the 

 larynx and upper part of the windpipe, materially obstruct- 

 ing the passage, and sometimes running across it in bands. 

 Some roarers, on dissection, are found to have the shape of 

 the larynx and windpipe materially deformed, crooked, and 

 compressed, and others have presented no appearance of 

 disease. Roaring is no unusual consequence of strangles («), 

 and it may proceed from tight reining {b) . Lord Mansfield 

 and Lord Ellenborough seemed to think that roaring was 

 not necessarily unsoundness ; but required proof, in each 

 particular case, that it was symptomatic of disease, or 

 affected the horse so as to render him less serviceable for a 

 permanency, as, otherwise, it might merely be a bad habit. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that every roarer is incon- 

 venienced by it when in rapid action, and it would be 

 difiicult to say, in any case, that it is merely a bad habit 

 acquired, without some previous inflammation or alteration 

 of structure. In practice roaring is always very properly 

 considered an unsoundness. 

 Decisions on The following cases show the opinions expressed in 



the subject. courts of law With regard to roaring. An action was 

 brought on a warranty of a horse, which soon after sale 

 had turned out a roarer. Mr. Field, a veterinary surgeon 

 of experience, stated that roaring is oecasioned by the 

 circumstance of the neck of the windpipe being too narroto for 

 accelerated respiration, and that the disorder is frequently 

 produced by sore throat or other topical inflammation, and 

 that the disorder is of such a nature as to incommode a 

 horse very much when pressed to his speed. And Lord 



(y) Lib. U. K. "The Horae,'' 

 254, 365. 



(z) Bone-spavin, ante, p. 68. 



(a) Strangles, post. 



(b) Lib. U. X. "The Horse," 

 160. 



