VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 273 
had had him, and that I believed the horse to be sound, and 
that I did not believe a sounder horse to be in the city. One 
of the pursuers asked if I could give a line to that effect, and I 
said I could; 1 therefore gave a certificate to the following 
effect : — “ I certify I have this day examined a black or dark 
chestnut gelding, bought from Alexander Henderson, and find 
said gelding sound.” 1 was present when the bargain was 
completed. I have held my diploma as a veterinary surgeon 
for about seven years, and know the nature of the disease 
called stringhalt. It is a spasmodic affection of the hind leg, 
arising from irregular nervous energy, and does not, in my 
opinion, constitute unsoundness ; and I rest my opinion upon 
what I have read, that stringhalt is considered more a blemish 
than unsoundness; and I have never heard it considered un- 
soundness by any veterinary surgeon, The works I have read, 
and to which I refer, are, first, The Treatise on the Horse, pub- 
lished under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffu- 
sion of Useful Knowledge, and Dick’s Manual on the Diseases 
of the Horse, the author of which is Professor Dick ; but I do 
not know who is the author of the first-mentioned work. 
On being interrogated for the pursuers, deponed, — My 
father is a farrier, and I have been brought up to the profes- 
sion of a veterinary surgeon. I have had a good deal of 
experience in the profession, and have seen the work called 
Percivall’s “ Hippopathology,” and have read parts of it here 
and there : I have also read Blaine, Hind, Ridges, and Peel ; 
but I have never read Richard Laurence’s Enquiry into the 
Structure and Animal Economy of the Horse, nor John 
Laurence’s Veterinary Surgery ; nor Osmer’s Treatise on 
the Lameness and Diseases of Horses; nor Boardman’s Dic- 
tionary ; nor Bartlett’s Farriery, as I believe them to be too 
much of the old school ; and 1 have not been requested by the de- 
fender to examine the publication of “The Horse” before appear- 
ing in this case as a witness. If I was made aware that string- 
halt arises from a tumour of greater or less size in the choroid 
plexus in the brain, or in some part of the spinal cord, it would 
alter my opinion, and I would consider it as a disease, and 
would, in consequence, render a horse unsound so affected. 1 
consider stringhalt to be incurable. 
James Horsburgh , veterinary surgeon, Dalkeith, sworn. — 
I hold a diploma from the Edinburgh Veterinary College. I 
examined the animal in question on the 7th of June, 1848. I 
considered that he was sound ; that stringhalt did not exist ; that 
he was eleven years of age, and not exceeding twelve. I do 
not consider stringhalt to constitute unsoundness. The profes- 
sion cannot explain what is the real cause of the affection, but 
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