MR. HALES IN REPLY TO MR. CARTWRIGHT. 4/9 
I resnect think differently on this subject to what I do. I may 
i * Tf vv p hod a settled code of soundness and unsound- 
ne'sI'Xh ” consummation devoutly to be wished ” I 
Should with confidence, look to such code as the proper guidance 
ta all ties of examination ; but so long as every vet*.nary 
surgeon is left to his own resources upon this subject, 1 shall 
consider myself bound to act according to my own conviction. 
I have not had the opportunity of seeing scores of cases of hernia, 
particularly in grown horses, that Mr. Cartwright s practice has 
afforded to him ; yet two cases of strangulated hernia have fallen 
under my notice. J The first was a small umbilical one, in which 
the strangulated portion of intestine sloughed, leaving an opening 
at the umbilicus, through which was a great discharge from the 
bowels,Tnd the animal was destroyed without my knowledge 
The other was scrotal hernia: this case, however, I did no 
whilst living, owing to the carelessness of the messenger who 
was sent to me. This horse (a stallion) had been sold a tew 
davs before, warranted sound, and had been very improperly 
treated by the purchaser. The case was left to reference, and 
the referee (a magistrate) decided that, as the horse was rup¬ 
tured be could not be sound ; and he would not go into the lm 
proper treatment, alledging that, as the warranty was rnconec , 
the seller was responsible. Neither the buyer nor seller knew 
that the horse was ruptured : the person who sold him was 
aware that the scrotum on that side was larger than the ot er, 
but it was the same when he came into his possession, and he 
supposed it to be of no importance. 
Strangulated scrotal hernia is by no means uncommon 151 
those countries in which castration is not performed. There is 
also a case of strangulated abdominal hernia recoided m 
Veterinarian of March last, by Mr. 1 hompson. The chance 
of strangulation, then, is not so very remote as some would inter 
it to be; but admitting strangulated hernia to be a more rare dis¬ 
ease than it appears to be, still I should consider a rupture an un¬ 
soundness ; for we have a most important part, the lnteiiuption 
of the functions of which would not only deteriorate the value o 
the horse but destroy his life, deprived of its proper and natural 
covering and protection, and only defended from external acci¬ 
dents by the skin, &c. A horse with umbilical or abdominal 
hernia may be killed in going over a country, or even breaking 
fence by an accident that would scarcely have injured him had 
all his parts been whole. Would any person give the same price 
for a horse with hernia, however small, that he would do if no 
such defect existed; or buy him as a sound horse, knowing that 
he had hernia ? I shall therefore repeat, that I consider a horse 
