JURISPRUDENCE. 
433 
minutes, increased gradually to one hour daily. He could not flex the 
hock, and would drag his toe along the ground. He was discharged on 
the 20th of August, with wound healed, and getting more use of the 
leg, to be sent on a pasture for two or three months. He has now re¬ 
sumed his work, as good as ever. 
JURISPRUDENCE. 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
Read before the Montreal Veterinary Medical Association , 4 th January , 1878, by D. 
McEachran, F. R. C. V. S ., President. 
Gentlemen: No subject outside of purely professional study has a 
greater claim on students and practitioners of veterinary society than 
that which I propose to introduce for discussion this evening, yet, I re¬ 
gret to say, that there is no subject on which there is so much diversity 
of opinion as on the question of soundness and unsoundness in horses. 
Many an instance has come under my own notice where diversity of 
opinion among the members of our profession has given rise to expen¬ 
sive and tedious law suits, the cost of which, while vexatious and costly 
to the litigants, proves highly detrimental to the profession. I am well 
aware of the great difficulty there is in attempting to reduce professional 
opinions to the same common standard, but surely if the subject of 
soundness was thoroughly understood by veterinary surgeons, there 
could not be the same difficulty constantly arising, as one certifying a 
horse to be sound and another the very reverse. True, all may not be 
gifted with the same accuracy of observation, and what one may notice 
another may overlook, and thus a difference of opinion arise ; but where 
the object of difference is apparent to both, but the opinion as to its 
affecting the soundness are diametrically opposite, it indicates something 
wrong somewhere, ignorance as to what really constitutes unsoundness ? 
or want of practical experience. I must confess that our literature on 
this subject is so scant as to be almost a disgrace to us, and so little at¬ 
tention is paid to it by the schools that really after all but little blame 
can be attached to our students, who, through ignorance of the subject^ 
fall into grave errors in attempting to advise their clients in matters of 
jurisprudence. Hence my reason for bringing it before you to-night, 
that I may endeavour to create an interest in the subject, and impart a 
few useful hints, which, I hope, may in some measure lead to our ar- 
