590 LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
deposit, which never entirely disappears. Why should not the 
same result follow sprain of the “ calcaneo-cuboid ” ligament 
if it is really the structure affected in curb P 
Professor Pritchard here showed the members several freshly 
prepared specimens of curb, which, while pointing out the site of 
the disease, clearly proved that the calcaneo-cuboid ligament was 
in no degree involved in the diseased action. 
As to the theory that the annular ligament is the site of the 
disease, annular ligaments seldom suffer from inflammation, unless 
caused by external injury, as in the knee-or fetlock-joint, or from 
an extension of the diseased action set up in the other structures 
of the joint, very rarely from absolute sprain ; then why should it 
occur in the hock joint ? 
“ There is plenty of room for the tendons to work, and it must 
be borne in mind that, besides these tendons passing down in 
company with them, there are the nerves going to the lower 
portion of the leg. If the annular ligament was liable to partial 
laceration from pressure put upon it by these tendons, what 
would become of such important structures as these P But, as in 
the case of the calcaneo-cuboid ligament, there is no evidence 
post-mortem that diseased action has ever existed in the annular 
ligament in cases of simple curb. 
“ Then as to the theory that curb is sprain of the tendon of the 
“flexor pedis perforatus,” I may content myself with simply 
stating that, like the two theories above noticed, there is no 
evidence whatever on examination post-mortem that this tendon 
is involved in the diseased action. We may have sprain of this 
tendon, and also the tendon of the perforans where the tendo- 
subtarsal ligament joins it, but in no case of simple curb have I 
ever seen the tendon diseased.” 
The Professor then referred to Percivall’s theory of curb, and 
also to that propounded by one of the old waiters on veterinary 
art, which he said came the nearest to his own, viz. a sprained 
and inflamed condition of the synovial sheath placed between the 
perforatus tendon and the posterior annular ligament of the 
hock. 
The Professor said, if we examine these synovial sheaths care¬ 
fully we find one between the perforatus and perforans tendons, 
one anterior to the perforans tendon, and one between the 
annular ligament and the posterior surface of the perforatus 
tendon. 
“ My own opinion,” said Professor Pritchard, “ is that curb is 
sprain of that synovial membrane situated between the annular 
ligament and the perforatus tendon. The inflammation and de¬ 
position may extend to the sheath between the two tendons, but 
the deposition first takes place in the former position. I have 
examined curbs twenty-four hours after their formation, and have 
found the deposition in that particular position. But you may 
ask, —How does the synovial membrane become sprained ? The 
tendons have free movement, and even when the limb is flexed 
