362 DADDS VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERi. 



soft parts. To the phosphate of lime, which is, more or less, dis- 

 tributed in their texture, they owe their solidity; and perhaps it 

 is to the same earthy substance that the difference in their vital 

 properties, and in their diseases from those of the rest of the body, 

 is to be referred. In fact, this particular organization and inferior 

 vitality of the bones are generally supposed to account for the 

 small number, peculiar character, and general slow progress of 

 their diseases. 



Treatment. — So soon as a horse shows any symptom of undue 

 curvature of the spine, he must not be used under the saddle ; but, 

 provided he can work, he may be used lightly in a buggy. Ii 

 unfit for work, the owner knows what is best to do with him. I 

 should give an animal afflicted with this disease a wine-glassful of 

 cod-liver oil, two or three times per week, and one table-spoonful 

 of flour of bone, every night, in the food. If this article can not 

 be procured, substitute for it phosphate of lime. 



Osteo Porosis (known as Big Head and Big Jaw). 



The terms big head and big jaw are used by husbandmen and 

 others in Ohio, and, indeed, throughout the Great "West and South, 

 to designate a disease of the bony structure of the horse — a disease 

 about which very little of a reliable character has ever been said 

 or written ; yet the subject is one of great importance to the peo- 

 ple of this country, for the simple reason that the evil is one of 

 alarming proportions ; and should the disease multiply in a ratio 

 equal to that of the past few years, it will be a terrible blow to the 

 laudable and hitherto profitable enterprise of raising colts in sec- 

 tions where this disease prevails. 



We do not wish to create any unnecessary alarm, but urge the 

 husbandmen of the South and South-west to give this subject 

 their earnest consideration ; for the disease probably has an hered- 

 itary origin — is " inbred " — and that, as the saying is, " constitutes 

 the root of the evil." The disease having been pronounced incur- 

 able, our only hopes of success in putting a stop to its propaga- 

 tion and development is, to adopt preventive measures, by reject- 

 ing, as breeders, all animals (sire and dam) that show the least 

 predisposition to or for this affection. 



Let the reader understand that the disease itself is incurable in 

 so far as the enlargement, dilatation, and softening of the jaw- 





