299 
ON WARRANTY OF SOUNDNESS, &c. 
By W. Litt, M.R.C.V.S., Shrewsbury. 
The April number of the Veterinarian contained a copy of 
a letter addressed by me, in February last, to a local journal, 
on the subject of warranty of horses. That letter was sug- 
gested by what appeared to me an unjust verdict in the 
county court of this district, by which it was decided that a 
slight appearance of thrush of the hind feet was a sufficient 
cause of unsoundness, and it was written with a view to 
warn breeders and sellers of horses generally of the exceed- 
ingly absurd condition of the law which supported a con- 
clusion so monstrous as this. Few professional men can 
have had much experience of horse-causes in our courts of 
law, without observing that the chances of success are hardly 
ever dependent upon the justice of the case, or, I may add, 
with any very respectful feeling for the course of such pro- 
ceedings. For my own part, a considerable opportunity of 
observation had excited so deep a sense of disgust with the 
whole subject, that I endeavoured, as far as I was able, to 
show the public that the seller of a horse had no security 
excepting in a request to warrant, insomuch that it was by 
no means an uncommon thing to find the most perfect horses 
condemned as unsound. But in doing this, I was careful to 
avoid everything of a personal nature ; and whatever might 
have been my opinion of the conduct of any individual in 
the case alluded to, I was careful to withhold it, and no word 
was allowed to fall from my pen which could reasonably give 
offence to any one. The best intentions, however, will some- 
time fail of success, and quite unconsciously, it seems, I have 
awoke the ire of no less an individual than Mr. Hales, of 
Oswestry. 
The secret of this is strange enough. There are two 
things of which Mr. Hales has a peculiar dislike — to wit, 
advertisements and jokes, and I am supposed to be guilty 
of having perpetrated both of these. To say the truth, I 
did, with a view to relieve a very dull subject, make one 
or two attempts to be merry ; and the consequence is, that 
Mr. Hales finds himself in the position of the man in the 
play, who is satisfied that certain people must have been 
talking about him merely “ because they laughed con- 
sumedly.” 
Having expressed, with becoming seriousness, his horror 
of a joke, Mr. Hales dilates, of course, upon the value of 
