LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
3 
lie was subpoenaed. Mr. (afterwards Lord) Erskine informed the 
jury that the hock of the horse answered to the knee of the human 
being, and that, as shewn by evidence he should adduce (a farrier), 
such swellings (as curbs) proceeded from a kind of gout! Bracken 
regarded curb in weak “ sickle-houghed” horses as an effort of 
nature to strengthen the parts. Osmer defines curb to be, “ a 
swelling on the joint of the hinder leg, below the hock,” but gives 
no account of its pathology. White considers curb “ in nature 
similar to a strain in the back sinews, and to depend upon the 
rupture and consequent inflammation of some vascular membranes 
situated between the two tendons of the gastrocnemii muscles.” 
Spooner (White’s commentator) repeats the words of White, “ in 
its nature similar to a strain in the back sinews adding, “ it de- 
pends upon a strain and inflammation of the strong ligament that 
passes from the os calcis down the hack of the hock to the shank 
hone , frequently involving the flexor sinews at the same time.” 
Professor Coleman’s opinion I never learnt : I find no notice what- 
ever on the subject in his “ Lectures.” 
Blaine heads his chapter on curb, “ CURB OR EXTENSION OF 
THE ligaments OF THE HOCK,” and adds, in the course of his de- 
scription, “ or of the sheaths of the tendons passing from the hock 
downwards, as of the flexor perforans .” Youatt pronounces curb 
to be, “ either a strain of the ring-like ligament which binds the 
tendons in their place, or of the sheath of the tendons ; oftener , 
however, of the ligament than of the sheath.” 
Thus, there evidently exists among the authorities cited some 
wavering of opinion respecting the true or exact seat even of curb, 
to say nothing of its pathology. Whether the disease be seated 
in ligament or sheath of tendon, or in tendon itself, is left unde- 
cided. Such dubious or wavering testimony might at first seem to 
reflect heavily upon veterinary surgeons. And yet. when we come 
to consider that horses are not shot on account of curbs, and that it 
is only perchance that a man in practice encounters such things in 
dead horses, we shall, in part at least, withhold any meditated 
condemnation. No honest writer, giving the results of his own 
observation, can describe what he has not seen : his descriptions 
must — ought at least to be — confined to his own practice in speak- 
ing en maitre on such a point as this. 
In GIVING MY OWN OPINION OF THE PATHOLOGY OF CURB, I 
would, in the first instance, by way of introduction, call attention 
to the anatomy of the parts concerned. The flattened tendon of 
the gastrocnemius internus (muscle), commonly called the tendo 
perforatus, after expanding upon the point of the hock to form a 
cap for it, continues its course straight down the back of the hind 
leg, clothed by cellular tissue, and by means of it connected with 
