112 
VETERINARY MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
decided, and that in many judgments, that there can be no un- 
soundness except what is recognized by the usage of the place. 
Where, then, is the clue that will guide us through this laby¬ 
rinth ? Alas ! in a branch of commerce so important to France 
as that of domestic animals, the confusion is so great on this 
point, that the judges themselves, the organs and the ministers 
of the law, do not know whether it exists, or how to explain it. 
Is not this, in effect, what is now passing under our eyes ? In 
some distrists of France usage alone is all-powerful, in spite of 
the equity upon which it tramples, and which it despises. In 
other districts the article 1641 of the Civil Code serves as a basis 
by which to appreciate the unsoundness, and usage is that by 
which the duration of the warranty is measured. Jn the latter, 
the least numerous it is true, the principles laid down by the 
code are the exclusive basis of all their judgments. In the for¬ 
mer, notwithstanding their having adopted the usage as their 
guide, and afterwards, and for many years, the spirit of the arti¬ 
cles 1641 andl648, they have within a few years repudiated these 
latter without any appreciable reason, without any avowed motive, 
once more to establish a jurisprudence which they had long con¬ 
demned and abandoned. That which is the most disgraceful of 
all is, that at the present day, and at Paris, while one section of 
the Tribunal of Commerce decides that the code has abolished 
usage with regard to unsoundness, another section has pro¬ 
nounced that it has preserved it. What chaos ! What anarchy 
in the law ! What a source of incertitude and ruinous expense 
for buyers and sellers ! and what insecurity for commerce ! 
You will not expect from me, gentlemen, that I should here 
agitate the difficult and important question, whether the usage of 
places, as it regards warranty, is or is not abolished by the code. 
Whatever may be the opinion of veterinary surgeons on this 
point, they are scarcely competent to decide such a question. 
But it is a fact that local usages are still observed in most of the 
departments of France; and that, in some of the tribunals which 
have not been guided by them, we cannot fail of remarking a 
manifest tendency to return to them. 
It is necessary, then, to examine into their application to the 
purchase and sale of animals; and it is on this point, on which 
no persons can be better judges than veterinary surgeons, that I 
feel myself naturally led to speak. 
Not to insist for a moment on that indisputable principle, that 
uniformity is one of the most indispensable characters of good 
legislation, we cannot look over the table of usages and customs 
traced by Gohier, without feeling great difficulty in believing 
that such a diversity in the laws of our country could exist on 
