VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
274 
suppose it to be some irritation of the nerve in passing from the 
spinal cord to the leg. I would consider it perfectly impossible 
that stringhalt could arise from a tumour on the choroid plexus 
of the brain, because, if it did so, then not the muscles of one 
leg only, but of the whole body, would have spasmodic affec- 
tion ; and I would certainly consider a horse so affected unsound. 
I know of no cure for stringhalt. I have had no horses under 
my charge for treatment because of stringhalt, except one ; and, 
in all cases where I have seen the origin of the disease, it has 
come on suddenly, and I have never seen a horse get worse of 
stringhalt than what he was at first. 
William Rae deposed : — I bought the black horse in question 
at. a public sale in Leith, under warrant of the sheriff, in June 
1848. I bought the horse upon a Saturday, and I disposed of 
him on the following Monday, to a man of the name of Law- 
son, who afterwards drove him for three months in a hackney 
brougham every day in Edinburgh, and who afterwards sold 
him for the sum of £26; all of which time William Lawson 
depones, upon oath, the horse was healthy and sound, and had 
no stringhalt. 
Thomas Mather , veterinary surgeon, aged twenty-nine, 
sworn : — I have held a diploma from the Edinburgh school for 
about nine years. I know the disease called stringhalt, and 
have dissected horses purposely to discover, by examination of 
the nervous system, what was the cause of this affection, but 
could not discover it. I do not consider it possible that the 
affection can arise from a tumour on the choroid plexus of the 
brain or on the spinal cord. Not knowing the cause of string- 
halt, I could not, and never did, treat a horse for that disease or 
affection. If a horse had a tumour on the spinal cord, it would, 
nearly in all cases, cause not stringhalt, but palsy, in which 
case I would consider the horse unsound. In all cases I have 
seen, the affection has come on suddenly. 
The Sheriff and Sheriff Substitute and the Lord Ordinary, 
having heard parties’ procurators, and made * * and con- 
sidered the closed record and proof adduced, having gone over 
the same more than once, descern and find upon all points 
against the defender ; noting, at the same time, that the above 
case is not altogether free from difficulty; that there is con- 
flicting evidence cannot be disputed, and particularly as regards 
stringhalt constituting unsoundness or not. Upon the whole, 
however, Lord Hood thinks that upon that point the Sheriff 
Substitute and Sheriff arrived at the sound conclusion, and can- 
not satisfy himself that there is any clear or satisfactory ground 
on which to disturb their interlocutors. 
It is much to be regretted, that the proposed arrangement 
