Osteomalacia. 575 



disease when fed elsewhere, so tliat the inference is that some agent 

 derived from these soils, and which is destroyed or rendered harm- 

 less by cnltivation, is carried in the food. It cannot be a mere 

 defect of nutritive matter, as this could be counter-balanced by 

 the simple expedient of consuming a larger ration. L,eclainche 

 has seen the disease in its worst form in herds which received a 

 rich and varied ration, while it spared adjacent herds that were 

 kept on rather short rations. Even 3'oung plethoric animals suf- 

 fered badl3^ though having all they would eat of natural fodders 

 (hay) from districts where the disease was unknown, and in ad- 

 dition grain, linseed cake, cooked legumes and bread. In two 

 neighboring stables, where the stock were kept in identical con- 

 ditions, receiving the same food, in equal quantity, one was de- 

 cimated by the malady, while the other was spared (Leclainche). 



The affection often prevails on the higher lands, which, beside 

 having the poorer soils, are specially exposed to cold storms and 

 frosts, so that chill enters as an accessor}' condition. In West- 

 moreland, England, the river Eden divides the affected from the 

 sound lands ; the victims are found on the west bank which re- 

 ceives the cold, east winds, and not at all on the east bank where 

 the warm, soft, west winds prevail. Thorburn noticed that 

 the majority of cases start in spring, when the animals, debilitated 

 by the winter's seclusion, are exposed to severe vicissitudes of 

 temperature and driving storms, to the strain of parturition, a 

 fresh, heavy milk yield, and moulting. 



The presence of a contagion has been suggested, but if this 

 exists it must be habitually introduced in the food or water rather 

 than transmitted from victim to victim. The healthy will often 

 stand beside the diseased for an indefinite length of time without 

 injury, and in certain recent cases a change to an uncontaminated 

 farm, or an abundant ration drawn from such sound soil, will .se- 

 cure immediate improvement and recover}' in a few weeks. In 

 view of such prompt recoveries it would be quite as reasonable 

 to suspect some ptomaine or toxin taken in with the food. The 

 question of a microbe or a microbian poison is as yet a mere 

 hypothesis. 



Cows become more susceptible with advancing age, and 

 Dengler alone claims to have seen the disease in calves. This is 



