503 
VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
said that there was latent disease at the time of purchase, he must 
be more gifted than veterinarians generally are who could dis¬ 
cover this ; and he should think it extremely hard on the seller if 
if the value of a horse was to be recovered on such a pretext. 
Can there be latent disease in the respiratory system when no 
function is in the slightest degree impaired; or how long may 
this latent disease continue undetected and unsuspected ? 
Mr. T. Turner imagined, that if ahorse had cough at the time of 
purchase, although he might be capable of ordinary work, he was 
unsound; and if the cough remained, he might be returned at 
any time, and more particularly if pneumonia supervened. 
Mr. Field .—Supposing the cough to have been pointed out at 
the time of sale, and the purchaser does not take a specific 
guarantee against that cough, is the seller responsible for the 
consequences of the cough ? He apprehended not. The man 
who bought the starred decanter, knowing it to be starred, could 
not return it, if it afterwards became broken. He is aware of the 
blemish—he exercises his own discretion, and he ought not to be 
permitted, after the lapse of two or three months, to turn round 
on the seller and declare the bargain null and void. 
Mr. T. Turner .—This seems to be an acknowledged principle, 
and juries have usually decided against the buyer for the neglect 
now spoken of. 
Mr. W. Percivall .—Although the decisions of our courts of 
law have been almost as often wrong as right, yet here the deci¬ 
sion was just. If a horse has a cough at the time of purchase, 
and the purchaser knows it, he cannot afterwards come upon the 
vender, unless there be a specific guarantee. 
Mr. Goodwin imagined that the opinion of the profession 
would be unanimous here. Cough is unsound ness-it is an 
alteration both of structure and function ; but if it be pointed out, 
the purchaser acts on his own responsibility. He directed the 
attention of the Society to a cause in which Mr. Coleman and 
Mr. Percivall had been examined. A horse sold from the Life 
Guards had a small exostosis on the cartilage of the foot. It 
had never for a moment been lame, either before or after the pur¬ 
chase. Sometime afterwards the buyer, the horse still continuing 
sound, wished to return him, although at the time of purchase he 
had been examined by Mr. Coleman, Mr. Field, and Mr. Perci¬ 
vall, and pronounced by all of them to be sound. The horse was 
taken to Mr. Sewell, who certified that it had enlargement and 
ossification of the cartilage, and, consequently, was unsound. 
On the faith of this an action was commenced for the recovery of 
the money. Mr. Coleman gave the following evidence, which, in 
