459 
SOUNDNESS IN HORSES. 
coincide with my notions. Every part is destined to perform certain 
duties for a certain purpose ; and as its office was originally per¬ 
fect, or of the best possible description, so every alteration (amount¬ 
ing to disease) must be considered a deterioration or impairment: 
I would therefore rather adopt the latter term, as less indefinite, 
and say (instead of alteration) impairment of function. 
But, futhermore, it appears to me, that although the ordinary 
functions of a part, may neither be impaired nor altered, yet that 
part may give rise to unsoundness from being in a state of inca¬ 
pacity to perform that which, naturally, it can and ought to do. 
I would, therefore, have my rule and principle of guidance to be 
laid down, to be, impairment of function or capacity . 
To sum up, then, what I have advanced, it amounts to this:— 
First, That actual disease constitutes unsoundness. 
Secondly, That disease in its actual or recognisable forms, is 
better understood than defined. 
Thirdly, That disease, in its relation to unsoundness, in dis¬ 
putable cases, is to be determined to be present or not, by the rule 
of impairment of function or capacity —irreconcileable with the 
natural efficiency. 
The two first positions require no farther comment: it is the 
last one which calls upon me to defend it from the attacks which 
l feel but too conscious it lies open to. In applying this prin¬ 
ciple to the constitution , as a whole, I would say with our Chief 
Justice, that the test ought to be, “whether the animal can per¬ 
form as before, and with the same degrees of facility and safety 
and in applying the same rule to the several component organs 
or pails of the system, I would say, that their deranged function 
or diminished capacity, putting disease out of the question, was 
only to be allowed to influence us to return the same answer when 
such local derangement or incapacity operated to the impairment 
or diminution of the constitutional powers, so that the animal 
could not, on that local account, “ perform the same as before . : ” 
Equally regardless, therefore, of change of structure and altered 
appearances, so long as they did not amount to actual or recog¬ 
nised disease, if a horse, nevertheless, could endure the same 
labour as he could have done without such alterations, and with 
the same degrees of facility, power, and stability, I should main¬ 
tain that he was sound in constitution. 
If the principle upon which I am at present proceeding be 
found only to be sound in itself, its adoption will save us a vast 
deal of uncertainty and perplexity in regard to cases which some 
look upon to be disease; others, not: being acknowledged to be of 
a dubious nature, they may be at once submitted to this test; 
and by it, and it alone, in their relation to the question of sound- 
