COMMERCIAL VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 475 
traveller, ignorant of the unsoundness, lias no remedy, for the 
nine days granted at Lyons are already nearly expiring. 
The old system of jurisprudence is also too favourable to fraud. 
Men who have some knowledge of horses may be induced to pur¬ 
chase, at a low price, animals that are unsound in certain districts, 
and re-sell them in other distrcts, where the usage does not recog¬ 
nise them as unsound. 
1 conclude here these observations, which sufficiently demon¬ 
strate that the legislation according to ancient usage is incon¬ 
sistent with our present knowledge of the diseases of animals, 
and contrary to natural right and equity, 8cc. I ask, and every 
veterinary surgeon will ask these lawyers, whether they do not 
find in the terms of the 1641st article of the civil code all that 
is necessary to establish a better jurisprudence, and utterly to 
reject the system of usage so destitute of just foundation; and 
whether in the article 1648, concerning the time for returning the 
animal, there is not in these words “ according to the nature of 
the unsoundness ,” a consideration just and important enough to 
make them discard the usages which we have proved to be 
so defective. 
If it is impossible so far to bend to our purpose an ancient law r 
w hich the code has preserved, it remains that w 7 e should demand 
a law which should determine, in an invariable manner, the time 
allowed by the warranty according to the nature of the disease, 
and for which the veterinarians and the schools will afford suffi¬ 
cient guides; for the usages are absurd and oppressive: they 
furnish easy occasion for fraud, and fraud is inconsistent with 
the true nature of a sale, which the Romans called “ contractus 
bonae fidei.” Through the fear of multiplying disputes, dis¬ 
honesty has been multiplied in France. It is a system which 
tends to corrupt the spirit of the nation. 
Recueil de Med. Vet• Mai 1831. 
We insert this long paper, to give our readers some idea of the 
state of opinion and of law in France regarding unsoundness. 
Veterinarians and lawyers are there even more abroad and more 
absurd on the subject of warranty than we are in England; and w e 
sadly want some master mind to set us right. Mr. Castley and 
Mr. Percivall, and the Veterinary Medical Society, have done 
much; but, perhaps, we must not expect any thing conclusive 
while the heads of our profession (proh pudor!) differ from each 
other toto cxlo respecting it. We again, however, invite our cor¬ 
respondents to the serious consideration of that which often an¬ 
noys us, and sometimes not a little compromises our professional 
reputation.—E dit. 
