VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
52 5 
plaintiff had retained the mare in his hands without notice of the 
alleged unsoundness from the 1st till the 28th of April, and called 
a number of veterinary surgeons for the purpose of shewing that 
the mare must have been unsound on the day she was sold. Mr. 
Spooner, the Professor of horse anatomy at the London Veterinary 
College, who examined the mare on the 28th of May, underwent 
a long examination upon this point; he endeavouring to shew that 
the lameness was caused by chronic disease of the navicular joint 
of the fore feet, and giving his opinion to be that such disease ex- 
isted before the 1st of April. During the examination, this gen- 
tleman stated that the symptoms of navicular lameness were con- 
jectural. His opinions were supported by Mr. Mavor and Mr. 
Nice, two veterinary surgeons resident in London. These gen- 
tlemen examined the animal respectively on the 6th and 29th of 
May. To meet this evidence, witnesses were called on the part 
of the defendant, who swore positively to the soundness of the 
mare from her birth to the day when she was sold to Collins; and, 
in opposition to the surgical opinions expressed by Messrs. Spooner, 
Mavor, and Nice, as to the day on which the unsoundness (now 
apparent and admitted) had commenced, the defendant’s counsel 
called Mr. Gabriel, of Rolls-buildings, London, and Mr. W. A. 
Cherry, of Camomile-street, Bishopsgate-street, London (two 
eminent practical veterinary surgeons), who explained the falla- 
cious nature of the professional evidence given on the part of 
the plaintiff, and stated it to be their opinion that the lameness 
of the mare was attributable to causes of much more recent date 
than the 1st of April last. They also shewed that the mare in 
stepping out rested the back part of her fore feet upon the ground, 
whereas, if the cause of lameness had been in the navicular joint, 
she would have gone on her toes. This view of the case was 
supported by Mr. Harding (a veterinary surgeon in extensive 
practice in the county of Surrey), and the jury asked the judge 
(Baron Parke) to permit them to go in a body to inspect the mare. 
His lordship acceded to this request, and the mare was produced 
and trotted out in the presence of the jury, the gentlemen of the 
long robe, and a crowd of spectators. The addresses of counsel, 
and the examination of witnesses, occupied the court until nine 
o’clock in the evening ; about which hour his lordship commenced 
a most impartial and luminous summing up, which concluded 
about eleven o’clock, when the jury, without leaving the box, 
found a verdict for the defendant. — York Herald. 
