ON THE CERTIFICATES GIVEN BY VETERINARY 
SURGEONS TO THE PURCHASERS AND 
VENDERS OF HORSES. 
By W. GOODWIN, M.R.C.S., Veterinary Surgeon to the Queen. 
It is to be regretted that the members of the veterinary profes- 
sion have not been taught to adopt some rules for rendering the 
certificates they are required to give upon examining horses as to 
soundness at least somewhat similar in the construction and ex- 
pression of their opinions, so as to render them more intelli- 
gible to the persons who have to pay for them. I am quite aware 
of the impossibility in attempting to reduce professional opinions 
to one common standard ; but I think that our leading practitioners 
might meet together, and agree upon some general principles for 
their guidance that would make their certificates less liable to the 
censure and ridicule they both merit and incur. 
The occurrence is by no means uncommon for a buyer to send a 
horse to be examined by a veterinary surgeon, and, not feeling 
satisfied with the opinion he obtains, to send him to another ; and 
on comparing the certificates of the two, and finding them so dia- 
metrically opposite in their statements, he finally trusts himself to 
the warranty of the dealer, purchases the horse, and at the end of 
six months has had to congratulate himself upon the possession of 
a sound animal, and the escape he has had in avoiding two unsound 
certificates. 
A few weeks ago, as I was travelling in a railway carriage, I 
heard one passenger who sat next me address another, his acquaint- 
ance, by asking him if he had found a horse to his liking in 
town. The reply was, “ Oh, yes; I had bought a very nice one, 
indeed — one that I really think would have suited me very well ; 
but, of course, I had him examined by my veterinary surgeon, and 
he sent me a certificate that the horse had some ailment — I forget 
what he called it — by some extraordinary name, however: but the 
man to whom the horse belonged prevailed upon me to have him 
examined again elsewhere, and I did do so, and got a certificate 
of perfect soundness ; but I am no judge in these matters, and 
should have always fancied something wrong, so I reluctantly left 
the horse, for I really believe he would have been just what I 
required.” The concluding remark of the listening passenger rather 
made me blush for the profession of which he little suspected me 
to be a member, when he said, “ I imagine you can get any sort 
of opinion you desire from these men.” 
