VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXIII, 
No. 265. 
JANUARY 1850. 
Third Series, 
No. 25. 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
[Continued from vol. xxii, p. 604.] 
Curb. 
THE Derivation of “ Curb,” there can be no doubt, is from 
the French word courbe ; the latter answering to the correlative 
words, curvare in Latin, corbar in Spanish, curve in English, &c. 
And yet, in the pathological sense in which we understand the 
word curb , we are unable to find in another language a word like 
it of the same signification. If we turn to the word courbe in 
D’ArbovalDiCTiONN AIRE Veterinaire, our best French authority, 
we find it defined to be “ an osseous tumour, hard, of greater or 
less magnitude, so called because in outline it is more or less 
curved; its seat being the inner surface of the horses hock , pre- 
cisely where projects the internal condyle of the tibia or bone of 
the thigh*.” The old French author, Solleysel’s, definition runs 
not very wide of this. “ The curb,” he informs us, “ is a large 
and hard tumour, generated of flegmatic matter, seated on the in- 
side of the hough, higher than spavin, on the substance of the ten- 
don that strengthens the part : ’tis a long swelling in the shape of 
a pear, cleft through the middle into two pieces, higher above than 
below, and sometimes makes the horse haltt.” The “osseous” 
composition of the tumour being here omitted, were it not for the 
* Course. — Tumeur osseuse, dure, et plus ou moins volumineux, ainsi 
appellee parcequ’elle d6crit une ligne plus ou moins courbe. Elle se deve- 
loppe a la face interne du jarret du cheval, ^l’endroit qui repond precisement 
au condyle interne du tibia ou os du jambe. — Diet, de Med. de Chirurg., Sfc. 
par D'Arboval. 2d edit. 1838. 
f The Compleat Horseman. By Solleysel. Translated by Hope. 
2d edition, 1717. 
VOL. XXIII. B 
£-\ s.-s'V 
