456 
SOUNDNESS IN HORSES. 
the case, he told the jury, Mr. Coleman's evidence “ put the de¬ 
fence out of court." 
'VY ith all deference to such combined high legal and veterinary 
authority, I cannot, myself, help viewing this definition as ex¬ 
tremely defective. In regard to disease , the principal and ge- 
n ^ r al cause of unsoundness, were we to apply this principle 
of altered structure and function in a part interfering with 
the duty of the whole” what would become of all the local ma¬ 
ladies those which are local both in their nature and in their 
effects ? There are certain stages of glanders, mange, grease, 
ophthalmia, &c. in which, although the part is disordered, the 
whole is not, either directly or indirectly, or at least not so as to 
interfere with the duties of the machine; in fact, wherein (accord¬ 
ing to our own common remark) the general health and spirits and 
action remains undisturbed. Some diseases are, we know, local; 
others, constitutional; and others again of a dubious character,— 
or at one time local, at another constitutional. Pray how are we 
to reconcile all this with u alteration of structure and function in 
a part interfering with the duty of the whole ? ” 
Easy as it may have appeared for me to criticise the opinions 
of others, I really feel quite alarmed for the fate of this paper, 
when I look around and view the many objections that beset any¬ 
thing I can frame in the shape of a definition in my own mind. 
To define soundness, would not merely demand a precise line to be 
drawn between the states of health and disease, but that the ani¬ 
mal should be represented in that effective state which from age, 
constitution, and external circumstances, he by nature ought or 
can be expected to be. The definitions we have been examining 
appear to me to be defective from not embracing both these con¬ 
siderations : at the same time I am ready to acknowledge, that 
it seems extremely difficult to frame one of this comprehensive 
description, which, probably, would not turn out to extend farther 
than in reason could be admitted. 
Regarding the horse as an animal destined for the service of 
man, and valuable in the ratio in which he is fitted either by 
nature or art to perform that service, he may be, in relation to 
the question before us, considered in two points of view: first, as 
respects his constitution; and, secondly, as respects his action . 
To be (in the dealer's phrase) “ perfectly sound," he must prove 
both sound in constitution and sound in action. This will form a 
convenient division of my subject, and enable me, for the present, 
to confine my observations to 
Soundness in Constitution. 
YV hat constitutes soundness in constitution ? or is, or ought to 
