OBSERVATIONS ON ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 343 
I used the word, as I believe modern science bears me out, 
having regard to the assumed ancient signification at the same 
time. 
“ 5. This question is already answered by the whole tenor 
of this report.” 
Judgment was given for the plaintiff, in accordance with this 
opinion. 
My reason for requesting the publication of this case is to 
draw attention to the absurd state of the law, which persists in 
retaining a barbarous nomenclature, invented and obtaining in 
Courts of Law long before scientific veterinary medicine had a 
beginning. Courbature , as defined by legal writers, is an im- 
possible disease — there is no such thing; and it follows that, 
since one of the three redhibitory vices known to the law ; 
glanders (la morve) is not known in this country, no man can 
obtain redress from the knave who imposes on him an unsound 
animal, unless he can prove it to have been affected at the time 
of sale with broken wind, or with ‘ la courbature ,’ an impossible 
disease, in the sense in which the law books define it*. Too 
much space has already been occupied, or much more might be 
said to demonstrate the absurdity and injustice of such a law. 
The remedy is obvious, — a short statute defining the most pro- 
minent of those maladies and defects which really constitute 
unsoundness, an act which shall defend the buyers of horses 
against their own ignorance and the rascality of the venders. 
Montreal, March 15, 1851. 
British American Medical and 
Physical Journal, April 1851. 
OBSERVATIONS ON ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY; 
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE EAST SOMERSET AND HENNEBIC 
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES, ON THE OCCASION 
OF THEIR CATTLE SHOWS AND FAIRS. 
[Extracted from the “Maine Farmer,” 21 Nov. 1850.] 
“ANOTHER department of agricultural education, from which 
you will derive great benefit, is Animal Physiology, particularly 
that portion relating to the multiplication of the species. The 
laws of animal life are remarkably peculiar. They possess the 
same power of preserving their identity that we find in the 
vegetable economy, as manifested in the oak and cedar. The 
wild horses of Arabia still preserve their identity, and are still 
* Because there is no disease known to modern science, in which lameness is 
primarily caused by and connected with obstructions in the intestines and lungs. 
