SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
561 
What shall we include in the intermediate degree, that of 
practical soundness f 
All horses that are free from disease and effects of disease or 
accidents that interfere with their natural usefulness, or in 
future would be liable to interfere with this usefulness. 
Horses could come under this category even though they had 
bony tumors, or soft tumors in various parts of their external 
anatomy, provided they were not lame, or liable to be made lame 
from them, or otherwise were not injured for their work. A 
horse disfigured by a fibrous tumor, the result of a shoe boil? 
would, ordinarily, not be inconvenienced by it in his work, and 
unless there were prospects of further disease in the part, he 
could be practically sound. He might have splints, wind galls, 
and even enlarged hocks, but if his action was not interfered 
with, he would be practically sound, and one might go on to a 
considerable extent, mentioning slight disfigurements, which 
would debar ahorse from the first degree of soundness, but would 
not injure his natural usefulness, and hence admit of his being 
practically sound. 
Under the head of unsowidness would be included all horses 
that could not be embraced in either of the preceding classes. 
As to the confusion caused by not properly applying the 
terms vice and unsoundness to their respective definitions: crib¬ 
bing, weaving, kicking, rearing, shying and running away, are all 
so many vices, until they can be found arising from some dis¬ 
ease, result of a disease, or accident, or until found to give rise 
to some disease. While the law has been generally so construed, 
there are many exceptions to the rule, and horsemen and veter¬ 
inarians have often considered such vices as unsoundness. It has 
been ruled many times that temporary ailments or injuries 
do not constitute a breach of warranty, or, in other words, do not 
constitute an unsoundness. Happily, this ruling is pretty much 
out of date. One cannot be too careful in wording certificates in 
such cases, and they should always be made conditional, and a 
special warranty should be demanded from the seller. I 
examined a horse for soundness last spring, which was sold as 
sound with the exception of a cough, claimed to be due to a 
