280 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
GLOUCESTER, MARCH 1842.— STRINGHALT. 
Shillam v . Arkell. 
This was an action for the breach of a warranty of a horse sold 
by defendant to plaintiff for £33, on the 5th of August last, and 
afterwards sold by public auction by plaintiff for £24, to which 
defendant pleaded — first, that he had not warranted the horse, 
and, secondly, that the horse was sound at the time of sale. A 
written warranty was first put in, signed by defendant, and his 
hand-writing sworn to by a witness. 
Mr. Nind, to whom the plaintiff resold the horse on the said 
5th of August, was first called. He proved that he observed the 
horse catch up his hind-leg in a peculiar manner while he was 
inspecting him, and pointed out the apparent unsoundness to 
the plaintiff, who assured Mr. Nind that the horse was warranted 
sound to him. In consequence of this, Mr. Nind did not hesi- 
tate to take the horse, which afterwards proved to be affected 
with stringhalt. This unsoundness was more visible when the 
animal had stood a little time, and afterwards turned round, than 
in his usual walk. 
These facts were proved by several of plaintiff’s witnesses, and 
particularly by two who saw the horse and wanted to buy him 
on the morning of the 5th of August last, previous to the plaintiff 
seeing him, and to both of whom the defendant offered to warrant 
the horse sound, though the unsoundness was pointed out to 
defendant by them. These parties saw the horse in the stable, 
but did not examine him out of doors. 
It was further proved, by the evidence of Messrs. Pegler, Mar- 
shall, and Dudtield, that stringhalt decidedly constituted un- 
soundness, inasmuch as it impeded the natural action of the 
animal, and much diminished its value; and, that the disease 
might have come on suddenly, and in the following manner, 
namely, by a laceration of the fibres of the adductor muscles, or 
by some morbid affection — some structural or functional derange- 
ment of the sciatic nerve. The equal action of the muscles was 
destroyed in consequence of the diseased state of the nerve. 
The flexors, naturally more powerful than the extensors, assumed 
a more violent and spasmodic action, unpleasant to the rider, 
and causing an unnecessary expenditure of animal power in the 
horse. 
A treatise on the horse, published by the Society for the dif- 
fusion of useful knowledge, was read by the defendant’s counsel, 
in which it is laid down that stringhalt is an “ involuntarily 
