484 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
spavin or ringbone, which allows a horse to do a hard day’s work 
without a lame step. It allows the sale of such an animal with 
the purchaser having a knowledge of that. Where an ordin¬ 
ary certificate uses the word sound and unsound, you would be 
compelled to condemn a perfectly useful horse having such a 
blemish. I think with a little unanimity on the part of the 
profession it would be comparatively easy to obtain suitable 
legislation looking towards a change in the system of examin¬ 
ation. Personally, I find it entirely practicable in many examin¬ 
ations to carry it out by the permission of the seller and buyer. 
In several dealers’ stables in Philadelphia where I practice, exam¬ 
inations are made in that way and I do not use the words sound¬ 
ness and unsoundness as they occur on my ordinary certificate, but 
I scratch them off the paper and state the blemishes of the horse 
and whether I consider he will be useful or otherwise. I would 
like to hear the subject discussed. 
Dr. Atkinson: I would like to inquire of Prof. Liautard 
whether the Continental law that he s 
i i 
common law ? 
Dr. Liautard: They are special laws which are common laws 
for that purpose. I will interpolate into my paper that in regard 
to prohibitory vices, they are referred to, so long as the animal 
was warranted not being free from them. 
How, I do not know that a great deal of discussion can be had 
on this subject for the simple reason that it is so broad. It is an 
important step to ask that we should work for the establishment of 
laws different from those which have been in existence in courts 
for many years. It may seem presumptuous on my part to pre¬ 
sent the subject to you, yet at the same time what I have said is 
the result of many hours of thought, and I have the regret of 
knowing that in many cases, by rejecting the animal, under the 
law, we were doing a great injustice to all parties concerned, and 
that those horses which we were obliged to condemn under the law 
would be perfectly satisfactory and give good useful service to the 
buyer. How, that subject seems to me of great importance. We 
cannot discuss it fully because there are so many points to be con¬ 
sidered. It seems to me, as our President has suggested, that we 
peaks of is statutory or 
