Sound

adj. In good condition. A word frequently used, in warranties of things sold, to aver that the subjectmatter is in marketable condition; and, in reference to mental capacity, to indicate that it is not overcome by disease. Sound, when used with reference to wood or vegetables, or other inanimate substances, means free of decay or rottenness. When it is used in reference to animals, and applied to the mind, it means that neither from nature or disease, or other causes, is the subject incapable of performing its ordinary functions. When applied to the organs of seeing, hearing, smelling, &c., it means that the organ has not, either from nature, disease, or other cause, any defect which makes it incapable or unfit to perform the services ordinarily required of it. Bell v. Jeffries, 13 Ired. L. 356. As used in a warranty on a sale of merchandise, sound relates to condition only, not to quality or kind; being opposed to defective, decaying, or injured. An article may be inferior, yet not unsound. Hawkins V. Pemberton, 35 How. Pr. 376. Sound and disposing mind and memory. This phrase is often used in the law of wi Us, to signify testamentary capacity. Judge Washington (in Harrison v. Rowan, 3 Wcush. 580, and Stevens v. Van Cleve, 4 Id. 262, 267) gave definitions of it, substantially as follows. By a sound and disposing mind and memory is meant that the testator must be capable of making his will, with an understanding of the nature of the business in which he is engaged, a recollection of the property of which he means ner in which it is to be distributed between them. He need not, indeed, view his will with the eye of a lawyer, and comprehend its provisions in their legal form; but if he has such a mind and memory as will enable him to understand the elements of which it is composed, and the distribution of his property in its simple forms, this is sufficient. This definitiou has often been quoted with appi-oval. See, in particular, Hall V. linger, 2 Abb. U. S. 507; Lowe i>. Williamson, 2 N. J. Eq. 82. The phrase sound disposing mind and memory, used with reference to disposing capacity, stands opposed, not only to idiocy and lunacy, but to all derangement of mind, occasioned by melancholy, grief, sorrow, misfortune, sickness, or disease. It is true that every discomposure of the mind, by tliese causes, will not render one incapable of making a will: there must be such a discomposure, such a derangement, as deprives him of the rational faculties common to man. But " sound " signifies whole, unbroken, unimpaired, unshattered, by disease or otherwise; and " disposing mind and memory " means a mind and memory which have the capacity of recollecting, discerning, and feeling the relations, connections, and obligations of family and blood. Merritt v. Johnson, 5 N. J. L. 454.