050 Osteomalacia. 



(b) Osteomalacia. Brittleness of Bones. 



{Bone softening; Halisteresis ostium. Osteopsathyrosis; 

 Cachexie osseuse [French].) 



Osteomalacia is a disease arising- from general nutritional 

 disturbances, which causes an increased absorption of lime 

 salts from the bones and therefore softening and manifold de- 

 formities ; fractures of the bones are not infrequent. 



Occurrence. Osteomalacia affects most frequently cattle, 

 especially milk cows, less often goats and swine, and still more 

 infrequently horses or mules, also sheep and buffalo; dogs 

 and birds appear to acquire the disease only in exceptional 

 cases. 



The disease occurs preferably in regions with unfavorable 

 conditions of soil, and in such regions it assumes, especially 

 in dry years, an enzootic distriluition and causes then very 

 emphatic economic losses. 



Osteomalacia has been observed in various parts of Belgium, Germany, France, 

 Austria (especially in Moravia [Rudofsky] ), then in Hungaria, and here more 

 especially in the regions of the upper Danube as well as in certain mountainous 

 regions. ' In other countries in Europe it has also made its appearance, and 

 further in many countries of Asia, Africa, North America and Australia. 



Quite extensive epizootics of the disease occurred as follows: 1778-1783 in 

 the province of Brandenburg; 1816-1817 in Baden; 1820-1822 in Anhalt; 1828 in 

 Switzerland; 1837 in Kraiu; 1832-1838 in Ehenish Hesse; 1833-1834 in the gov- 

 ernment districts of Coblentz, Trier and Aachen; 1863-1866 in Bohemia; 1868- 

 1869 in the grand duchy of Weimar; 1893 in Belgium and France; 1893-1894 in 

 Baden, the Ehenish countries, etc., 1895 in the district of Cologne, in the region 

 of Chemnitz and Grossenhain; 1904-1905 probably all over Germany, certainly in the 

 kingdom of Saxony (Klimmer & Schmidt). During the last-mentioned period 

 the disease was epizootic in Moravia (Rudofsky), and also in one county of upper 

 Hungary on the Galician borders. In the years 1908-1909 many cases occurred in 

 several parts of Hungary. 



Osteomalacia (the so-called osteoporosis) is widely distributed in Asia, Africa 

 and Australia, occurring especially in Tonking, India, Japan, Madagascar, Camerun 

 (called by Ziemann disease of the maxillae of horses and mules), the Transvaal 

 and in the Cape Colony; in these regions it is an annually recurring enzootic 

 affecting the horses, mules and asses. 



In America, also, enzootics were observed among horses in many regions. 



Etiology. As in rachitis, so in brittleness of the bones of 

 animals, a deficiency of lime in the organism is undoubtedly of 

 the highest importance. This is in perfect agreement with 

 the constant occurrence of the disease in localities with un- 

 favorable conditions of soil. 



In these regions the soil is usually very poor in mineral 

 substances, especially in phosphoric acid and lime ; the subsoil 

 consists of porous bog- or peat-strata, or it is exposed to fre- 

 quent floods. If in addition the cultivation is primitive, and 

 particularly if the deficiency in salts is not corrected artificially 

 by appropriate fertilization, the food plants growing on such 

 a soil are likewise deficient in mineral substances. This may 

 be true to an increased degree in dry years, when the salts 



