WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



Thickening of 

 the back 

 sinews. 



Thick-wind. 



Thinness of 

 sole. 



Held not an 

 unsoundness. 



Upon this his lordship said, " It is a question for the 

 jury whether string-halt produces those effects which in the 

 eye of the law renders him unsound." And in summing 

 up shortly afterwards his lordship said to the jury, '' You 

 have heard the evidence as to string-halt ; if you are 

 satisfied that it is a disease calculated to impair the natural 

 usefulness of the horse, you must find for the plaintifP, it 

 being admitted that the horse had it." The jury found 

 a verdict for the plaintiff. 



For thickening of the back sinews see Sprain and Thicken- 

 ing of the Back Sinews {k). 



Thick-wind consists of short, frequent and laborious 

 breathings, especially when the horse is iu exercise ; the 

 inspirations and expirations often succeeding each other so 

 rapidly as evidently to express distress, and occasionally 

 almost to threaten suffocation. Some degree of it fre- 

 quently exists in round-chested and fat horses, and heavy 

 draught-horses are almost iavariably thick-winded, and so 

 are almost all horses unused to exercise or violently ex- 

 ercised on a full stomach. The principal cause, however, 

 of thick-icind is previous inflammation, and particularly 

 inflammation of the bronchial passages. Thick-uind is 

 often the forerunner of broken-wind [l), and when it pro- 

 ceeds from inflammation it is ammsonndness (m). 



Thinness of sole which does not afford sufficient protection 

 to the inner or sensible sole, makes a horse hable to 

 lameness. 



In a case tried at Liverpool before Mr. Justice Cress- 

 well, it appeared that a horse, whose feet were thin-soled, 

 was sold warranted sound. Some time after sale he went 

 lame, and an action was brought on the warranty. Wit- 

 nesses were called for the defendant, who stated that the 

 mere fact of a horse's feet being formed in this manner 

 would not of itself render him unsound. And Mr. Justice 

 Oresswell in summing up said, " The plaintiff must, in order 

 to recover in this action, make out that the horse was 

 unsound at the time of sale ; a defective formation, how- 

 ever, not producing lameness at the time of sale, is not, in 

 my opinion, unsoundness." His lordship then referred to 

 the case oiBrownv.Ulkington («.), where Lord Abinger, C.B., 



(A) Sprain and Thickening of the 193. 



Back Sinews, ante, p. 95. («) Srown \. 



Q) Broken-wind, ante, p. 70. W. 132. 

 (m) Lib. V. K. "The Horse," 



JSlkiiiffton, 8 JI. & 



