242 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
negligence or default of the railway company or their servants,” 
they were free from liability. The pursuer, in reply, contended that 
the conditions of carriage were not just or reasonable. 
The sheriff (Hector), adhering substantially to the judgment of 
his substitute (Dunbar), held the defenders liable. 
To-day, the Court unanimously reversed, and assoilzed the railway 
company. They held that Rain, who had experience in these 
matters, having chosen to put his thirteen cattle into one truck, 
must be held to have taken on himself the responsibility of the 
overcrowding during the transit. That overcrowding was evidently 
the cause of the death of the cattle. No other cause had been sug¬ 
gested, except want of food and water, but clearly it was not the 
duty of the railway company to provide food and water if the owner 
of the cattle did not choose either to do that or to send some one 
to see that the cattle were specially cared for. On principles of 
common law, the railway were undoubtedly not liable. There was 
no negligence proved on their part. As to the reasonableness of 
the contract, that was, in the circumstances, quite reasonable. The 
pursuer, by choosing out a truck, put himself into the position of a 
man who sent, not goods to be loaded into a truck, but a truck 
already loaded, and in these circumstances the defenders were 
quite entitled to provide that they should not be liable for risks of 
loading, &c. 
Counsel for Advocators—Solicitor-General and Mr. Johnstone. 
Agents—Gibson-Craig, Dalziel, and Brodies, W.S. 
Counsel for Respondent—Mr. Gordon and Mr. Scott. Agent— 
W. S. Stuart, S.S.C .—North British Agriculturist. 
PROSECUTION UNDER THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 
ACT. 
At the Guildhall on Saturday, before the Mayor and a full bench 
of Magistrates, J. L. Lubbock, Esq., of Catfield Hall, was sum¬ 
moned on the information of Nicholas Bone, for exposing for sale 
in the Norwich Cattle Market a bullock affected with pleuro-pneu- 
monia. 
Mr. E. Tillett prosecuted; and Mr. J. C. Chittock appeared for 
the defendant. 
Mr. Tillett said the information was laid under the 49th section 
of the Contagious Diseases Act, 30 and 31 Vic., cap. 105, which 
enacts, that any person exposing for sale, in a market or fair, cattle 
affected with pleuro-pneumonia, unless he shows to the satisfaction 
of the justices that he did not know that the cattle were so affected, 
and that he could not with reasonable diligence have obtained such 
information, shall be liable to the penalties under this Act. The 
facts of the case were, that Mr. Smith, the appointed inspector of 
live stock brought into the Norwich Cattle Market was following 
his usual occupation on the 16th of January last, when he saw the 
