VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
25 
On the part of the plaintiff*, witnesses were called to prove the 
following facts : — That the black gelding had been purchased at 
Howden Fair for the sum of 150 guineas ; that he was conveyed 
from the defendant’s residence, in the county of Durham, with the 
greatest care, to the plaintiff’s stables at Cricklade, in Wiltshire, 
the distance, with the exception of a few miles, being travelled by 
railroad. That, having remained there about a fortnight, he was 
sold to a gentleman of fortune named Hardy, in Warwickshire, 
for «s£200 ; that he was taken to Mr. Hardy’s residence by easy 
stages, and about a week after his arrival was discovered to be 
lame ; the lameness proceeding from a diseased state of the fore 
feet, caused by laminitis. Mr. Hardy, who had received with the 
horse the same warranty as the plaintiff had got from the defend- 
ant, immediately sent him back, and, the purchase-money having 
been returned to him, the present action was brought. Mr. Stanley, 
a veterinary surgeon consulted by Mr. Hardy, Mr. C. Spooner, 
Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College, and Mr. 
Field, a veterinary surgeon in town, consulted by the plaintiff, all 
pronounced the horse to be unsound, the structure of his fore feet, 
particularly the off one, having been permanently impaired by 
laminitis. This disease, which is usually called “ fever of the feet,” 
they described as commencing with acute inflammation of the 
laminae, substances which lie between the coffin-bone and the exte- 
rior hoof, protecting the latter from being pressed by the former. 
If the inflammation be so acute as to induce inflammation, the 
coffin-bone falls down upon the hoof, and the horse becomes per- 
manently and incurably lame : if it does not proceed to that extent, 
chronic inflammation supervenes, the coronet of the hoof throws 
out ridges, the horn at the toe thickens, and the sole or space 
within the frog becomes so flattened as to touch the ground and 
make the horse liable to lameness after a hard day’s work, or from 
travelling on the road. The witnesses abovementioned stated their 
belief that the horse sold to the plaintiff had suffered from laminitis 
in a modified form, and that the disease, which was marked by the 
usual symptoms (flat soles and ridges on the hoofs below the coro- 
net), had been in existence some time. As further evidence in 
support of this case, witnesses were called to prove that the iden- 
tical horse had been purchased for a Hungarian nobleman, but 
when he reached Northallerton, where he was to be delivered over 
to the buyers, proved so lame that he was returned to the defend- 
ant. Mr. Payne, an extensive horse-dealer, also swore that, having 
gone to see the horse and to know what price the defendant put 
upon him, he asked whether he had ever been lame ? And the 
defendant’s reply was, “ never, except when he had fever in the 
feet.” 
VOL. XXI. 
E 
