LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 391 
with the greatest rapidity and to the utmost extent, both tendons 
work together, yet it must be put upon the stretch somehow 
before it can be torn. The explanation is this :—The synovial 
membrane is attached to the white fibrous tissue at the posterior 
part of the hock, and consequently allows of a certain amount of 
movement only, and when that is exceeded sprain to a greater or 
less extent must occur.” 
The Professor then briefly enumerated the causes of curb, the 
principal and immediate cause being extraordinary flexion of the 
hock, young animals being most liable to it. 
The conformations of hock most disposed to curb were those 
with a very short and straight os calcis, and the reverse. 
Curly IIocJcs .—He said this shape of hock was due to an 
unusual development of the head of the outer small metatarsal 
bode, sometimes mistaken for curb, but easily distinguished from 
it by passing the finger down the centre of the back of the hock 
to the inner side of the ealcaneo-cuboid ligament, when no eleva¬ 
tion will be felt, and the enlargement in such hocks does not 
appear when the hock is viewed from the inner side. 
Treatment .—Reduce the inflammatory action by rest and the 
application of tepid water intermittently, so as to allow of evapo¬ 
ration. This he preferred to the constant application of either 
hot water or bandages to the part. The after-treatment to con¬ 
sist of blistering or firing, or both. 
Mr. Beynolds said that their thanks were due to Professor 
Pritchard for his very clear and, to his mind, very satisfactory 
exposition of the pathology of curb. He considered that it was 
very much wanted. 
In reference to treatment, the course recommended by Pro¬ 
fessor Pritchard was perhaps the most scientific, but it was often 
found impossible to carry it out in ordinary practice. For in¬ 
stance, he remembered a case which occurred to himself soon 
after he left college. A country parson rode into their infirmary 
yard from the hunting field one day in November and asked him 
to examine and prescribe for his mare, which had sprained her 
hock. I recommended antiphlogistic remedies as a preparation 
for other treatment to follow, when I was immediately met with 
the rejoinder, “ Young man, you know nothing at all about your 
business. I want my mare to hunt next week.” I never forgot 
that, said Mr. Reynolds, and as a matter of practical expe¬ 
rience I have found that the application of a severe blister at 
once, continuing the animal at work, answers very well in the 
treatment of curb. He preferred the biniodide of mercury 
ointment as a blister, and in reply to a question, said that he 
would continue to work the animal even if he was lame. 
Mr. Peter Taylor expressed his warmest thanks to Professor 
Pritchard for his very valuable contribution towards the solution 
of the true pathology of curb, but, nevertheless, he was inclined 
to differ from the professor’s view that it was the synovial 
sheaths that were affected in this disease, for, he said, ininflamma- 
