594 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
Edward Ferrell, a young man, son of the previous witness, 
deposed that the horse in question was several months in the 
paddock at Whittlesea. It was thoroughly sound when put 
there, but about the 20th January it appeared to have had a kick 
in the leg, for which he treated it. When he brought the horse 
into town—viz., the 13th February—he rode it behind a flock of 
about 200 sheep during the greater part of the journey, but can¬ 
tered it in for the last seven or eight miles. Took the horse to 
Mr. Whiteman's veterinary infirmary, and there saw Mr. Mitchell, 
who examined it with his hands, especially about the swollen part 
of the leg, and said he thought the wound had been caused by a 
stake. Believed Mr. Mitchell said the bone was not broken. 
Mr. Mitchell told him they would probably have to throw the 
horse and examine it, and very likely have to put a seton into it. 
The horse was not at all lame when he took it to Whiteman's, 
but it appeared lame once when it was in the paddock. 
John Roy croft, station manager to the last witness, gave evi¬ 
dence to the effect that when he found out that the horse was 
lame, it had not been so more than a day or two. The lameness 
appeared to have been caused by a kick or a stake. 
John Miscamhle, veterinary surgeon, stated that if the horse 
had been let alone while it was alive, the broken bone would have 
healed of itself, and nature would have removed the diseased bone 
which had formed in the leg. There was no doubt the leg was 
broken before the horse came from Whittlesea, but the parts had 
united to a certain extent, and were broken again by the casting 
of the horse. If it had remained in the paddock it would have got 
well. Had the horse been brought to him he would have detected 
the injury to the bone if he had been told that it had been staked 
or kicked. It seemed to him that there,was no necessity for 
putting a seton into the horse, but doctors differed. A horse 
might walk some distance with a complete fracture of the leg if 
the ground were good. It was very improper treatment to throw 
a horse to do anything to a leg like Mr. Serrell's horse's leg was. 
A horse to be cast ought to have four good sound legs. In 
cross-examination, he said he believed the horse went to White¬ 
man's, not with a completely broken leg, but with a broken leg 
partly repaired. The bone of a horse would get as diseased as 
that produced was in about a fortnight. There was evidence of 
sequestrum, or filling up with diseased bone of the inside of the 
leg bone, where the marrow was; but nature would have repaired 
all that, and was doing it in this case. Supposing inflammation 
occurred from the blow which the horse had received, the se¬ 
questrum would have formed as it appeared in about ten days. 
The horse would, if let alone, have recovered, and absorbed the 
sequestrum. The whole appearance of the bone showed that it 
