710 SOUNDNESS. 



the defects he possesses, which might be unsoundness ; and should 

 finally express the writer's opinion. It might, for instance, run 

 as follows: — 



Address 



Date 



" I have examined to-day, at the request of Mr. Blank, a brown 

 cart mare, five years old, called Nancy, the property of Mr. Dash, 

 of the Greyhound Hotel, Banktown, Brookshire. She is fifteen 

 hands three inches high ; has a small star on her forehead ; and 

 white girth-marks on her near side. 



" She has capped hocks ; and has a splint on .her near fore. 



" In my opinion she is sound. 



"A. B. Case, M.R.C.V.S." 



If the animal possesses some defect which of itself constitutes 

 unsoundness, this fact might be remarked upon, and the last two 

 paragraphs might be merged into one, which might run as follows : 



" She has capped hocks ; and has a spavin on her off hind. She 

 is therefore unsound." 



Price. 



Some practitioners erroneously think that they ought to be 

 stricter about giving a certificate of soundness for a horse which, 

 if passed, would be sold for a high figure, than for one of less 

 value. They have, on the contrary, nothing to do with the animal's 

 price, which is in no way a veterinary matter. The following 

 remarks made by Holt, on " Broennenburgh v. Haycock " (" Holt's 

 Reports of Cases at Nisi Prius," vol. 1, p. 6-32) refer to this point : 

 " It was formerly, indeed, a current opinion, that a sound price was 

 per se an implication of warranty. In other words, that a sound 

 price given for a horse was tantamount to a warranty of soundness. 

 But when this notion came to be judicially examined, it w-as found 

 to be so loose and unsatisfactory, and so much at variance with the 

 principles of the English law in contracts of buying and selling, 

 that Lord Mansfield [in " Stuart v. Wilkins," " Douglas's Reports 

 by Frere," vol. 1, p. 18] rejected it as a popular error ; and said, 

 that there must either be an express warranty of soundness, or 

 fraud in the seller, in order to maintain the action." See, also, 

 "Parkinson v. Lee" ("East's Reports of Cases," vol. 2, p. 314). 

 If, then, price has nothing to do with soundness, the veterinary 

 surgeon who is concerned only with the question of soundness, 

 should, we may feel assured, allow no consideration of price to 

 influence him in his decision, as to the soundness or unsoundness 

 of the animal he is examining. 



