180 NON-INFLAMMATORY DISEASES OF BONES. 



cartilaginous, and open; but if the animal be allowed to 

 live, earthy matter is deposited in the bones, which eventually 

 become firm ; the curvatures, however, remain. It is a notice- 

 able fact that the centre of the curve in a rickety bone becomes 

 strengthened by a deposition of additional bony matter ; thus 

 we always see that a horse with bent legs has depositions in 

 the very centre of the arch, strengthening the weakest part, and 

 making the bones bulkier than natural. 



In hydrocephalus, the rickety condition of the bones is the 

 result of the pressure of the cranial fluid. 



Eickets appears when the patient is a few weeks or months 

 old, and is caused by constitutional debility, the scrofulous 

 diathesis, or by external and preventible causes. Thus we find 

 it in calves which are not allowed to suckle their mothers ; in 

 foals, when the mothers are taken to work during the day, and 

 their offspring allowed to suckle perhaps every morning and 

 night, or at most three times a day. 



In all cases, there is a tendency to irregularity in the bowels, 

 the milk passing through them in an ill-digested, curdy condi- 

 tion, white in colour, and sour in odour, " the white skit," as it 

 is vulgarly called. In a high-bred calf that I once observed, 

 this kind of purging had existed for several weeks. At the 

 time I saw him he was about three months old ; had remained 

 healthy until he was six weeks old, at which time he manifested 

 symptoms of rickets ; and when examined by me, was found to 

 have bending of the bones of the extremities, enlargement of the 

 cranium, with separation of the bones at their sutures, and that 

 he was blind from the pressure of the fluid contained within the 

 cranial cavity. 



Professor Dick used to mention in his lectures the case of a 

 thorough-bred horse which was affected with rickets when a few 

 months old. He afterwards recovered, and out of compliment 

 was called " Tlie Professor." 



The treatment of rickets must be directed to the removal of 

 all influences deleterious to the constitution ; and to the support 

 of the weak and bent limbs. To fulfil the first purpose, the most 

 appropriate remedies are dry and pure air ; a large, roomy, loose 

 box, or, if the weather be w^arm and dry, a nice field or paddock, 

 and the constant companionship of the mother. If the patient 

 be a calf which has not been allowed to suckle from its birth. 



