502 VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Turner thought that if the catarrh was of a severe kind, 
it might not be always possible to distinguish it from pneumonia ; 
and if pneumonia occurred in a few days after the sale, it would 
be fair to conclude, that it was a continuation of the original dis¬ 
ease. By due care, he meant veterinary care,—application to a 
veterinarian in whom confidence might be placed. 
Mr. Held felt that this branch of the subject was very impor¬ 
tant : How far shall the seller be liable to the purchaser for the 
result of acknowledged defect at the time of sale. By ausculta¬ 
tion the surgeon shall detect an affection of the throat, and point 
it out to the buyer. That affection of the throat may afterwards 
extend to the lungs : now far is the seller liable ? A horse coughs 
in his gallop; this indicates a tendency to inflammation. It is 
pointed out by the surgeon, yet the purchase is made; and on the 
next day the horse is taken into the field, and has perhaps more 
than his quantum of work, and becomes seriously ill: this is 
clearly the fault of the purchaser, and he must sustain the loss. 
Suppose there should be a slight cough discoverable onlv on con¬ 
siderable exertion, and on pinching the upper part of the trachea 
it is evident, from the grunt which he gives and the repetition of 
the cough, that there is irritation abouUhe larynx; yet that horse 
may be sound, for he has not the cough which incapacitates him 
for work, or which our experience tells us is likely to degenerate 
into pneumonia; and if after three or four months he should die 
of pneumonia, his value could not be recovered. There is an im¬ 
portant responsibility of the buyer to the seller. If, when hg 
discovers an apparent unsoundness, he does not apprise the 
seller, but goes on to work the horse, and thus prevents the 
seller from taking proper remedial means, or applying to the 
veterinary surgeon in whom he places confidence, he does not do 
right towards the seller, and in a great measure forfeits his claim 
upon him. 
Mr. James Turner observed, that as to returning a horse for 
pneumonia after three or four months, it was altogether out of the 
question. 
Mr. Field .—And yet every reasonable man w r ould allow that 
such cases were of not unfrequent occurrence; and the Society 
was not uselessly employed in endeavouring to appreciate the 
connexion between the original and secondary disease, so far as 
it bore on the question of soundness, and the responsibility of the 
seller. Some clear line of demarcation should be laid down. If 
a horse has a cough, the surgeon can generally ascertain in w^hat 
particular portion of the respiratory apparatus the disease exists; 
but if the horse have no cough, even after a gallop, and no labori¬ 
ous breathing, yet after three or four months he dies, and it is 
