1C4 
ON SOUNDNESS. 
with his theories, and no weight at all to those that conflict with 
them: habit forces him to do so, and he cannot help it.” It is 
this want of systematic instruction — the want of a broad and 
firm basis on which the knowledge and the practice of the vete- 
rinary surgeon may be built — that has led to “ those professional 
tournaments, by which all are alike injured in the end, the victors 
and the vanquished. ” 
In the course of our time, we can recollect two palpable 
instances of this aberration of mind. A veterinary surgeon, 
whose duty it was to examine the horses sent to a certain depot, 
believed that one of the most frequent causes of unsoundness in 
horses was disease of the eyes ; and to such extent did he carry 
this (it became so decidedly a species of monomania), that he 
would reject as unsound, from incipient cataract, fifteen horses 
out of twenty, when there was not a defective eye in the whole of 
the lot. It became a matter of absolute necessity to remove him 
from that situation. Another had his imagination so full of the 
tricks and frauds of dealers, that the slightest malformation be- 
came, in his opinion, a cause of desperate unsoundness; and many 
a horse that had not a blemish about him was pronounced to be 
utterly unfit for service. He, too, was removed. 
We are glad that one of our able correspondents has taken the 
field on this painful subject, and that another has promised so to 
do. To them, and to others who feel like them, we cheerfully 
confide the consideration of the matter. Those professional dif- 
ferences of opinion have become a crying evil, and the thing must 
be remedied. The discussion of the question before the Medical 
Association might be productive of some good; yet we confess 
that we do not expect so much from it as our friend Mr. Spoon- 
er seems to anticipate, and especially when we recollect the 
comprehensive and admirable essay on soundness presented to a 
former society by Mr. W. Percivall, and the full discussion of 
the principles which it involved. (See Veterinarian for 
November and December 1829.) We think, however, that we 
know the person, who, if he is not anticipated by other and bet- 
ter men — and there are many, many such in the profession, and 
especially with reference to this subject, and to whom he would 
readily, thankfully give way — ere the close of another session, 
will volunteer in the Association in such a cause. Y. 
