340 HORSE CAUSE IN LOWER CANADA. 
old alchemist of the middle ages, as an authority in chemistry, 
against Faraday or Berzelius, as to cite Solleysel against 
Percivall or Hurtrel D’Arboval. 
“ Now, Mons. Huzard, an eminent modern French veterinary 
practitioner, whose work I procured since my first report in 
this case, appears to express his wonder that the term cour- 
bature has been retained in the law of Louis Philippe relative 
to the warranty of horses, dated from the Tuilleries, the 20th 
of May, 1838. He speaks of it as a term * dans le language 
de l’ancienne marechalerie qui avait precede la medicine ve- 
terinaire.’ Its etymology is evidently from the Latin curvare, 
and in human medicine the French practitioners apply the 
word to fingers and toes permanently bent and distorted ; but 
how does this word, if we had no other light before us, apply 
to ‘ obstructions of the lungs and intestines,’ and also to a horse 
not ‘ having the free use of his limbs]’ 
“I will see what light I can throw on this apparently mys- 
terious subject. 
“ I was told in Montreal that the horse which I was to 
examine and report on was lame in all four legs, and that this 
lameness must be a ‘ courbalure ,’ or it could not come within 
the 1 vices redhibitoires Of course, it was immaterial to me, 
personally, whether it did or did not; but seeing from the descrip- 
tion given that it was a curious case, professionally, I examined 
the horse on my arrival at Three Rivers, and without much 
difficulty came to the conclusion which led me to give the 
opinion which I did ; and had I not carefully studied the works 
of the old farriers, as well as of the best modern authors, on scien- 
tific veterinary medicine, I could not have come to any conclu- 
sion at all on the examination which I made and the information 
which l had. 
“ I fortunately had in my possession the English translation 
of Solleysel’s work, made by Sir William Hope, the governor 
of Edinburgh Castle, in the year 1717. In that book I found 
the word ‘ courbature ’ rendered ‘ chest-founder,’ and this at once 
developed the mystery. What the old unscientific French 
farrier called courbature , the equally unscientific English farrier 
of the same age called ‘ chest-founder ;’ and, according to 
Blaine’s authority (edit. 1832, page 485), we find that the 
terms ‘ chest-founder, body-founder, and foot- founder,’ were so 
jumbled together in old works on farriery, that one is really at 
a loss to know in what part of the body the horse, according to 
them, was diseased. Modern science has shewn that chest- 
founder is, in fact, accute rheumatism (see Blaine, Youatt, 
White, Spooner, Volpi Rodet, and Hurtrel D’Arboval, passim ) ; 
that the rheumatism flies about from one part of the body to the 
