110 
VETERINARY MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
compelled to apply, in order to ascertain whether the animal in 
dispute had or had not the defect which was suspected to belong 
to him, and whether this defect was so serious as to be termed 
unsoundness. 
According to the decision of these scientific personages, the 
judges formed their opinion; and, from many similar decisions, 
arose those usages which, for many ages, were preserved only in 
common tradition. In aftertimes these traditions were, in some 
districts, reduced to writing. I ought, however, to state, that 
this written law was never acknowledged in France generally ; 
and that, to the present day, in a great part of the kingdom, 
tradition is the only foundation of usage. 
For a long time unsoundness was invariably that which usage 
had made it in each locality; except that, from time to time, dur¬ 
ing the last century some new' cases w 7 ere admitted by divers 
parliaments, and inscribed among the usages and customs of the 
country. Nevertheless, however, and in spite of the representa¬ 
tions and protests of veterinarians, little or no change took place 
with regard to the previous usages , and throughout the w T hole of 
France they continued to constitute the law of the case. 
At length the civil law appeared, an imperishable monument 
of the legislative wisdom of the first years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. 
The articles on warranty, which had reference to the concealed 
faults of the animal, were received with satisfaction by all the 
friends of agriculture, and particularly by veterinarians ; for they 
saw there circumstances and facts placed on fixed and equitable 
principles, which ought to unite in order to constitute unsound¬ 
ness and to annul the purchase. 
According to the article 1641, all concealed faults existing 
prior to the sale, and sufficiently serious to render the animal 
unequal to the service for which he was destined, or which dimi¬ 
nished his value so much that the purchaser w 7 ould not have 
bought him if he had known them, constituted unsoundness. 
According to article 1647, diseases concealed, or not apparent 
at the time of sale, occasioning the death of the animal, and be¬ 
ing recognized on opening him, constituted unsoundness. 
As to the time which was allowed to the purchaser to bring his 
action for unsoundness, it ceased to be the same in every case. 
Its duration, which ought to be as short as possible, was regu¬ 
lated by the nature of the unsoundness. And here the legisla¬ 
ture had good reason for this alteration ; for there are some de¬ 
fects which the purchaser requires only the morrow, or the day 
after, in order to discover; while there are others which it is im¬ 
possible for him to be aware of until the animal has been fifteen or 
