SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS* 183 
mighty reckonings of talent on the obtaining of a verdict ; 
but, forsooth, they very rarely shine in the exhibitions of a 
court of nisi prius. 
The discrepancies of veterinary evidence, upon matters of 
unsoundness, let our profession down lower than anything 
else connected with it; and so long as its members continue 
to mark out a course of jurisprudence for themselves, so long 
shall we continue to witness those painful scenes in horse- 
trials of professors giving one opinion, and their pupils 
another, — of half a dozen veterinary surgeons for the plaintiff 
swearing one thing, and as many more for the defendant 
contradicting it ; and, to wind up, the judge on the bench, 
assuming to know more of the disease in dispute than the 
whole dozen put together. 
We may safely depend upon one thing, that the lawyers 
will never advocate unanimity in our profession upon matters 
of unsoundness, as it would deprive them of numerous fees, 
and even of opportunities of mirth, created by their cross- 
examinations of veterinary witnesses. Those ludicrous, 
though humiliating positions of the veterinary surgeon w’ould 
not then so often occur. 
It is evidently to the interest of the legal profession that 
we should continue in our fruitful course ; that we should 
induce our employers to take their disputed horse-cases into 
court, by declaring that the opinion of an adjacent member 
of the profession is palpably wrong ; that we should assume 
and exercise an authority in all matters appertaining to 
veterinary jurisprudence ; and that, if a good customer either 
buys a sound horse he does not like upon trial, or sells an 
unsound one which he warrants sound for the purpose of 
obtaining the best price, w 7 e should help him in getting out, 
lest we offend him and lose his future favours ; or if w T e are 
requested to accept a subpoena and give our evidence some 
distance off, in an exceedingly questionable case, for the 
distinguished honour conferred by selecting us from amongst 
so many eminent members of the profession, w ? e of course 
should not hesitate to go. Thus acting, we shall always 
prove a source of benefit to the bar, and frequently see our 
names luminating in the records of the Veterinarian , and the 
daily reports of the press. 
It is of no use of our talking about a code of veterinary 
jurisprudence, or of the professors* lectures upon the subject, 
unless we set our faces against such temptations as I have 
alluded to, and w ipe our hands of such usages. All argument, 
discussion, and teaching, will be but a waste of words, depend 
upon it. 
This temporising with unsoundness and warranties is our 
