488 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
A horse was hired from C. S. to go a certain distance; he was 
taken a much greater one. He was, as one party affirms, ill-used 
upon the road,—he was brought home ill,—and a little while 
afterwards he died. 
The arbiter thus gives his decision on the case : — 
The arbiter has not had much difficulty in disposing of this 
case, and he thinks he would be doing manifest injustice if he 
should adopt, upon the evidence, any conjectural opinion as to 
the existence and formation of previous disease as a ground for 
refusino; to award to Mr. S-the value of his horse. 
The case is very simple and very clear. The previous state of 
the horse is matter of positive proof, and not of opinion merely. 
M-, the hostler, who had charge of the horse, swears dis¬ 
tinctly, that the horse was previously quite well; that he had 
no cough, or any appearance whatever of disease. Mr, P- 
knew the horse perfectly; bad frequent opportunities of seeing 
him, and saw him some days before ; and he says the horse was 
previously quite well. H-,who was then in S-’s stables, 
speaks to the same facts. And this evidence is confirmed by 
A. L., by T. W., by J. L., and C. S., though the two last do not 
come up to the very day of the hiring. It is also both proved 
and admitted, that the horse performed the journey to C- 
apparently with ease, and arrived without any symptoms of 
distress. The arbiter holds the previous state of the horse, there¬ 
fore, to be matter of direct and satisfactory proof; and he can¬ 
not disregard this testimony upon any vague conjecture or 
suspicion that there had been previous inflammation actually 
commenced and formed, merely in consequence of the opinion 
of scientific persons, in itself, as will be seen, most contradictory. 
When a person in S--^s situation lets out a horse to hire, the 
arbiter does not see what better proof he can bring, or can be 
expected to bring, of his horse being well and sound, than that 
which the claimant has brought. Besides, considering how well 
the horse did the journey to C-, and, as the other parties 
say, for the greater part of the way back, the arbiter thinks it 
would be very hazardous indeed upon any mere opinions to 
assume that that horse was labouring under inflammation ac¬ 
tually formed, and of such duration as to have advanced to 
the stage of tubercles. The arbiter thinks it quite plain that 
there is ample clear evidence that the horse was well, and fit for 
the journey, and would not have suffered if he had not been over¬ 
pressed. 
As to his treatment, the arbiter does not think the early part 
of the day of very much importance. Undoubtedly the person 
hiring the horse for H. C. and J. H. did not deal fairly with 
