30 
A. DRINK W A TER. 
that this paper may excite sufficient discussion to repay you 
for listening 1 to it, by the information we can gain from those 
who have had more experience than I have had in regard to 
the disease referred to. 
VETERINARY EXAMINATION AS TO SOUNDNESS OF HORSES. 
By Dr. A. Drinkwater, V.S., Rochester. 
(A Paper read before the New York State Veterinary Society.) 
* 
Colonel Thompson, of Boston, now deceased, was a man 
of rare tact and ability, and by no means devoid of wit, in his 
profession as an auctioneer. On one occasion, while engaged 
in the sale of a horse, he was abruptly interrupted by a Mr. 
A., who, with a nasal sound characteristic of him, inquired if 
the horse was sound. The reply was, “Yes.” While the 
sale was progressing and another half hundred was being 
tried for by the man of the hammer, the same Mr. A. burst 
out again with: “ Colonel, do I understand you to say that 
this horse is perfectly sound ? ” The Colonel paused, and 
drew up his portly frame to its full measure ; then looking 
Mr. A. full in the face, thus addressed him : “ Mr. A., if a man 
should ask me if Mr. A. is a gentleman my answer would be, 
‘ Yesbut if he should ask me if he is a perfect gentleman— 
half, am I offered another half ? ” This instance of profession¬ 
al wit serves as a text which will find application throughout 
the world when horses are bought and sold, and when the 
veterinary surgeon is expected to give an absolute guarantee 
regarding the soundness of an animal. 
When medical experts are called upon to examine a man 
who is a candidate for life insurance, he is expected to answer 
an almost unlimited number of questions, not only relative to 
his own condition, physiologically, both past and present, but 
that of his ancestors as well. The strictest inquiries are made 
to determine whether there was the slightest prospect of his 
being afflicted, under favorable circumstances, with any he¬ 
reditary taint, even back as far as the seventh generation. 
“The sins of the father,” etc., is a proverb even in the eyes 
