AND HIS DISEASES. 47 



magnus (the principal muscle in bending the hock-joint) is 

 torn or strained ; this is always a serious lameness, owing to 

 the complexity of the part involved. 



Causes. — The causes are the same as in other joints — 

 slips, blows, and wrenches. 



Symptoms. — In moving, the limb is held as straight as 

 possible ; it is moved of a piece,- as it were, the stifle is 

 turned outward at every step, and the leg is swung round, 

 and placed further forward than in hip-lameness. In most 

 cases we have heat and swelling. If made to stand on the 

 limb, the capsular swelling can be felt, and pain is evinced 

 on pressure. 



Treatment.-^'Rest must be given. If the cartilages are 

 displaced, they must be replaced by careful manipulation; 

 hot fomentations, or continued cold applications, must , be 

 applied ; and in the latter stages, repeated blisters or setons 

 should be resorted to. 



CUEB. 



Curb consists in sprain of the superior straight ligament 

 (calcaneo-cuboid) at the back of the hock-joint. This liga- 

 ment is attached above to the back part of the point of the 

 hock, (os calcis,) and is inserted below in the head of the 

 outer splint-bone, and by a few fibres to the cuboid^bone. 

 It is, therefore, from its position, very liable to sprain. Mr 

 Percivall and others supposed that it was inflammation of 

 the cellular tissue covering the tendon behind, or injury of 

 the sheath of the tendon itself, at the back of the hock. 

 However, careful dissection generally reveals enlargement, 

 and sometimes even rupture, of some of the fibres of this 

 ligament. 



Causes. — Any sudden action of the limb more than usual 

 may produce it;, and therefore horses are found to "throw 



