ON CURBS, OR AFFECTIONS RESEMBLING THEM. 697 
In all cases where a cure was performed, I have invariably 
commenced with venesection, and then administered, as the case 
seemed to me to require, aperients and sedatives. 
I have also seen good effects produced in some cases from the 
use of veratrum, combined with calomel and opium ; at the same 
time giving aperients, such as croton, tiglii semin. pulv., magn. 
sulph. &c. 
Should you consider the above, or any part of it, of sufficient 
importance to occupy a small space in your invaluable miscellany, 
it is quite at your service. 
ON CURBS, OR AFFECTIONS RESEMBLING THEM. 
By an Amateur . 
The following is the substance of my recent communication 
to you on the subject of curbs or curby affections, which you are 
at liberty to put into the fire or to publish in any way that you 
may think useful, not, however, divulging my name. 
In the spring of the last year, I found a young horse that my 
groom had been hunting slightly lame in the hock of the near 
hind leg, evidently from the heat, tenderness, and swelling at the 
seat of curb. The horse was kept quiet for a few days, when 
I rode him twenty miles across the country, he going perfectly 
sound. 
In a day or two I rode him hunting, and perfectly sound until 
within a mile or two of home, when he became very lame, and I 
consulted a veterinary surgeon, who pronounced it a clear case 
of curb : the swelling, heat, and tenderness were obvious at the 
seat of curb. 
The horse was kept quiet, and cold lotions applied for a few 
days, when the groom again hunted him twice, he going per- 
fectly sound, and one of the days being severe and trying. The 
horse was then laid up and blistered repeatedly ; and in August 
taken up from the straw yard, with very little enlargement re- 
maining, and likely to stand work. 
Now here is a case of intermittent lameness, from what any 
veterinary surgeon would pronounce to be curb, as the one I con- 
sulted did. 
This is quite inconsistent with the anatomical and surgical 
description given of curb, on which veterinary writers seem to 
agree. The very term springing a curb, and the lesion described, 
imply so violent a disorganization as would seem to preclude the 
