Can a plaintiff recover damages in an action of deceit?

In response to the argument on behalf of the defendant that in an action of deceit the plaintiff could not recover anything except special damages, Laidlaw J.A. at p. 306 said: "I do not propose exhaustively to consider or discuss the distinction between general damages and special damages. Speaking broadly, general damages are such as the law will presume to be the direct, natural, or probable consequence of the act complained of; special damages are such as the law will not infer from the nature of the act. For a discussion of the distinction see Ratcliffe v. Evans, [1892] 2 Q.B. 524 at 528 (C.A.)."