OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS, 
73 
a later case a horse was bought warranted ^ sound and 
free from vice/ and an action was brouglit against the vendor 
on the ground of its being a crib-biter and wind-sucker. 
Veterinary surgeons were examined, who said that the habit 
of crib-biting was injurious to horses; that the air sucked 
into the stomach of the animal distended it, and impaired the 
powers of digestion, occasionally to such an extent as greatly 
to diminish the value of the horse and render it incapable of 
work. Some of the witnesses gave it as their opinion that 
crib-biting was an unsoundness ; it was not, however, shown that 
in the present instance the habit of crib-biting had brought 
on any disease, or had, as yet, interfered with the power or 
usefulness of the horse. 
Mr. Baron Parke told the jury that to constitute unso%ind- 
ness there must either be some alteration in the structure of 
the animal, whereby it is rendered less able to perform its 
work, or else there must be some disease. Here neither of 
those facts had been shown. If, however, the jury thought 
that at the time of the warranty the horse had contracted the 
habit of crib-biting^ he thought that was a vicOj and that the 
plaintiff would be entitled to a verdict on that head. The 
habit complained of might not, indeed, like some others (for 
instance, that of kicking), show vice in the temper of the 
animal, but it was proved to be a habit decidedly injurious to 
its health, and tending to impair its usefulness, and came, 
therefore, in his lordship^s opinion, within the meaning of the 
term vice, as used on such occasions as the present.^^ 
As I have quoted somewhat at length, it will be as well now 
to analyse the various opinions which have been recorded, 
so that we may come to a correct conclusion upon this dis¬ 
puted point. Blaine is of opinion it is a vice, but he believes 
'it always commences in dgsjwgisia. If it always commences in 
dyspepsia, it should not, I think, be called a vice. There 
seems much inconsistency, to say the least, in this reasoning. 
Youatt is in favour of its being considered an unsoundness. 
He writes, “ The crib-biting horse is notoriously more sub¬ 
ject to colic than other horses.^^ 
Professor Spooner, in his remarks at the meeting of the 
members of the Veterinary Medical Association, gives his 
opinion without prevarication or mental reservation; his 
words, as reported, are, I cannot view it otherwise than 
unsoundness. 
The French writer, M. G. Fischer, considers the habit one 
of vice only. Lastly, we come to a legal work, by Oliphant,^^ 
in which we learn that Mr. Justice Burroughs considered 
crib-biting to be a vice. Mr. Baron Parke was of opinion, in 
