CURB. 333 



erroneous site attached to it, one might pass it for being intended 

 for curb, the " cleaving of it through the middle " being very signi- 

 ficant of the shape of the tumour. At all events, our old authors 

 on farriery, succeeding Solleysel, appear to have done so ; and in 

 this way we may account for the introduction of the word into our 

 nomenclature. 



A Curb may be defined to be, a prominence upon the back 

 of the hind leg, a little below the hock, of a curvilinear shape, 

 running in a direct line downwards, and consisting in effusion into, 

 or thickening of, the sheath of the flexor tendons. 



The Signs of Curb, then, are a tumour in the situation men- 

 tioned, possessing heat and tenderness while recent, and which are 

 sometimes manifest in the surrounding skin as well, commonly 

 attended with lameness, and, when the pain is great, with a flexed 

 position of the limb in standing, the animal resting the weight upon 

 his toe. 



Situation and Dimension. — The tumour, or prominence 

 rather, rising imperceptibly out of the surface at a distance of from 

 three to four inches below the point of the hock, gradually increases 

 to the extent of one-and-a-half or two inches, and from its middle 

 or most prominent part as gradually decreases, vanishing in the 

 surface of the skin in the same manner in which it took its rise 

 therefrom. This gradual rise and decline of the tumour renders it 

 necessary, in order 



To DETECT A CURB, that the observer should stand alongside 

 of the horse's quarter, and not behind him. The eye in this posi- 

 tion, running from the point of the hock downward, readily discovers 

 the irregularity or prominence in the posterior line of the limb ; 

 whereas, had the view been taken from behind, no swelling would 

 have become visible. 



Magnitude. — Although the tumour of curb is never one of 

 any enormous size, yet is there a good deal of variation in its 

 magnitude in difibrent subjects. In some, in young unbroke 

 horses in particular, the rising is too small to be likely to be de- 

 tected by any save the practised eye, and, as such, is rarely ac- 

 counted of any consequence ; unless it should happen to be com- 

 bined with what we denominate " a curby-formed hock." On the 



