474 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5 GEORGE v., A. 1915 



In advanced stages the gait became most uncertain and staggery. As one would 

 expect in poorly-nourished young animals, the bones became soft and rachitic. It is 

 well to make an explanation here, that according to authorities on the subject, rickets 

 is a non-painful affection, which fact separates it from the disease in question. Osier 

 says that if there ever is pain it must be quite exceptional, that the " ricketty " symp- 

 toms which we have observed must be secondary, and the final and conclusive proof of 

 tliis is that none of the controls ever showed any of these symptoms, though they were 

 fed, housed, and cared' for in exactly the same way, with the one exception that instead 

 of rice-meal they were given other grains. 



Again, as has been stated before, the attacks of lameness were for the most part 

 sudden. A pig which had been quite active in the evening woiild be lame on the 

 following morning. In rickets, on the other hand the symptoms, according to Moussu, 

 are invariably insidious (" absolument insidieux.")- 



In the foregoing experim3nts the stiffness took, on an average, fifty days to appear; 

 in two cases it was seen at about thirty days. The lameness is usually in the hind legs, 

 just as beri-beri in human beings produces neuritis of the feet and legs. It is said 

 that beri-beri is not so common in children as in adults; as all the pigs used were 

 youn^, Mr. Moore intends to do some further experiments on older animals. 



All possibility that the disease might be contagious was eliminated early in the 

 course of the experiment. Healthy control pigs were moved into pens which had lately . 

 been occupied by the diseased animals, no attempt at disinfection being made. None 

 of these pigs ever showed any symptoms or ill effects. 



It is important to emphasize the fact' that when rice-meal was discontinued, and 

 other grains substituted, the pigs recovered. 



PATHOLOGY. 



The pathological findings confirmed the resemblance of the disease to beri-beri. 

 Temperature records of both healthy and control pigs have been kept and no important 

 rises of temperature have ever been recorded. The average temperature of control 

 pigs for a 43-day period, commencing in the middle of a test, was 102-5* F., that of 

 rice-meal pigs for the same period, 101-4:° F. The lower average in the case of the 

 rice-meal fed pigs was due to the temperatures becoming sub-normal in the latter part 

 of the experiment, when they fell as low as 99° F. 



The pathological changes seen in the pigs fed for one hundred days were as a rule 

 insignificant. There was, however, one lesion which was almost constant, a congestion 

 of the duodenum, and a catarrhal, bile-stained condition of the lower end of the 

 stomach. Thirteen pigs were kept over the hundred-day period; post mortem examina- 

 tions were made on them and in thc~e the lesions were much more marked. Four of 

 these showed well-marked pericarditis and adhesions. In nearly all cases there was a 

 considerable amount of fluid in the pericardial sac. The hearts were soft and flabby. 

 Accompanying the heart lesions an oedematous condition of the lungs was seen. In 

 one case gastric or peptic ulcers were encountered, and all but two showed congestion 

 of the duodenum and a catarrhal condition of the stomach. Though other lesions were 

 looked for in the viscera, none was encountered. 



The bones were very soft, with the exception of four cases, where shorts had been 

 substituted for rice-meal for about a fortnight. In these it was noticeable that the 

 bone was getting harder. In the other cases the bone could be readily cut with a 

 knife. 



The blood was thin in the advanced cases, but in the differential count no varia- 

 tion from the normal was observed. The urine, removed from the bladders of three 

 pigs after death, in one showed no albumen and in the other two small amounts. The 

 muscles of the affected pigs were soft The fat was slow in setting and in some did not 

 set at all well. 



Agassiz. 



