y results; but with this trouble, as with knuckling fetlocks,
the danger of relapse must be kept in mind as a contingency always
liable to occur.

CURB.

This lesion is the bulging backward of the posterior part of the hock,
where in the normal state there should be a straight line, extending
from the upper end of the point of the hock down to the fetlock.

_Cause._--The cause may be a sprain of the tendon which passes on the
posterior part of the hock, or of one of its sheaths, or of the strong
ligament situated on the posterior border of the os calcis.

Hocks of a certain conformation seems to possess a greater liability to
curb than others. They are overbent, coarse, and thick in appearance, or
may be too narrow from front to back across the lower portion. This
condition may therefore result as a sequence to congenital malformation,
as in the case of horses that are "saber-legged." It often occurs, also,
as the result of violent efforts, of heavy pulling, of high jumping, or
of slipping; in a word, it may result from any of the causes heretofore
considered as instrumental in producing lacerations of muscular,
tendinous, or ligamentous structure.

_Symptoms._--A hock affected with curb will present at the outset a
swelling more or less diffuse on its posterior portion, with varying
degrees of heat and soreness, and these will be accompanied with
lameness of a permanent character. At a later period, however, the
swelling will become better defined, the deformity more characteristic,
the prominent, curved line readily detected, and the thickness of the
infiltrated tissue easily determined by the fingers. At this time, also,
there may be a condition of lameness, varying in degree, while at
others, again, the irregularity of action at the hock will be so slight
as to escape detection, the animal betraying no appearance of its
existence.

A curb constitutes, by a strict construction of the term, an
"unsoundness," since the hock thus affected is less able to endure
severe labor, and is more liable to give way with the slightest effort.
Yet the prognosis of a curb can not be considered to be serious, as it
generally yields to treatment, or at least the lameness it may occasion
is generally easily relieved, though the loss of contour caused by the
bulging will always constitute a blemish.

_Treatment._--On the first appearance of a curb, when it exhibits the
signs of an acute inflammation, the first indication is to