GENERAL DISEASES OF THE BONES. 301 



patient is young, or good feeding if beyond this stage. Lime- 

 water in the sucking, and in all subjects tonics (phosphate of 

 iron, hyposulphite of iron, cinchona, cod-liver oil, pancreatine, 

 etc.) 



SOFTENING AND RAREFACTION OF BONE. 



Rickets. — Young animals (puppies, sheep, calves, and, less 

 frequently, foals), often suffer from an imperfect nutrition of the 

 bones, with a deficiency of earthy salts, so that the bones, 

 especially those of the limbs, bend under the weight of the 

 animal, and assume various unsightly distortions. The affection 

 runs hereditarily in certain families, and its appearance is often 

 determined by insufficient, excessive, or injurious food, such as 

 poor, sour, or fevered milk, or inadequate substitutes. Any- 

 thing that undermines the general health will develop it in a 

 predisposed subject. The malady may usually be checked by 

 a change to rich or moderate feeding, as the case may demand, 

 a dose of pepsin wine at each meal, with dry warm airy sleeping 

 places and access to the open air, sunshine, and gentle exercise. 

 Puppies may have bones to gnaw at will. In cases of severe 

 threatened distortion much benefit may be derived from support 

 by well-padded bandages. 



Softening of Bones in Dairy Cows. — This resembles 

 rickets in its dependence on the nature of the food, but appears 

 only in breeding cows. It is a disease ot poor sandy and 

 gravelly soils, the vegetation of which is deficient in earthy 

 salts, and even on these is shown only after a dry season, when 

 the fodder is at its worst Diseases of digestion and assimila- 

 tion will also, exceptionally, determine it. The parts that 

 primarily suffer are the bones of the haunch, the disease resem- 

 bling in this respect the osteo vialacia of women who have borne 

 children. 



Symptoms. — Lameness, difficulty in rising, with some altera- 

 tion of form in the quarters are the first signs, and an examina- 



