224 
THE PRESENTATION OF 
when they crept as high as the hock, it was all up with the 
animal. The judge, Lord Mansfield, held that this was a very 
serious grievance—a manifest and, probably, incurable unsound¬ 
ness,* and that, therefore, the defendant must take the horse 
back again: and so verdict was given accordingly for the plaintiff. 
Another cause was tried before the same judge. A horse 
was sadly lame in one of the fore feet, and various measures of 
relief had been ineffectually tried. The owner took the horse to 
a farrier, who, after a very serious examination, told the gentle¬ 
man that he could take away the cause of the mischief, and that, 
if he would call on his return from a place to which he was going, 
he would shew him all about it. The gentleman returned in due 
time. ^ Here, sir,’ said the farrier, ‘ I don’t know whether it is 
bone or gristle, or what it is, but here is the source of all 
the evil’—holding up the navicular bone! You, gentlemen, 
know what must have been cut through, and what mischief 
must have been done, in order to get at that bone; and that the 
horse must necessarily be ruined for life. He was so. And when 
the farrier sent in his bill, the gentleman refused to pay it, on the 
ground of mal-practice. The farrier commenced his action— 
the whole story was told, and so ignorant was the judge of what 
was good or bad practice in such a case, that he thus summed 
up : ‘ The plaintiff employed the defendant—he had confidence 
in him, or he would not have employed him : the man acted to 
the best of his judgment, and he must be paid for his time and 
trouble;’ and, accordingly, the verdict was for the plaintiff. 
I am proud, however, to say, that, so far as my knowledge 
extends, only two actions have been brought against pupils of 
mine for mal-practice; and, although in both cases, the verdict 
was against them, yet, in my opinion, neither of them ought to 
have suffered in reputation or in purse. One of them was sent 
for to examine a sick horse. Immediate bleeding was evidently in¬ 
dicated. It was then customary to bleed with the fleam; but my 
pupil had not his blood-stick with him. A delay in the bleeding 
might have been dangerous. He asked for some substitute for 
the blood-stick, and a hammer was given to him. The horse 
was bled. The vein afterwards inflamed, and a great deal of 
