DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 12. 



NOTES ON OSTEO-MALACIA 



(Bone-chewing), 



[Being results of the examination of soils, herbage, &c., from affected areas, carried 

 out in the Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture, New South Wales.] 



Introductory. 



F. B. GUTHRIE. 



THE three papers dealing with osteo-malacia, or bone-chewing, which form 

 the contents of the present Bulletin, embody the work done in the laboratory 

 of the Department in investigating one phase of this disease, namely, , the 

 deficiency in certain mineral constituents in the food of animals suffering 

 from the complaint. 



The first paper, by Mr. Max Henry; describes the nature and course of the 

 disease, its distribution, and the methods of treatment found to be satis- 

 factory. 



Dr. Jensen contributes the results of a fairly exhaustive series of analyses 

 of soils from the South Coast, including those from affected and from 

 unaffected areas, and makes sbme useful suggestions as to soil treatment, 

 with the object of minimising the prevalence of the disease. The analyses 

 point conclusively to deficiency in mineral plant-food in the soils from the 

 affected areas. In the third paper Mr. A. A. Eamsay gives further results 

 of analyses of these soils with respect to the amounts of lime, potash, and 

 phosphoric acid soluble in water, and with the lime and phosphate contents 

 of the humus matter from the soils of affected and unaffected areas. . In 

 this case also the humus from the affected areas was deficient in, thes6 

 ingredients. It was to be expected that the composition of the herbage would 

 be affected by the nature of the soils, and would show a corresponding 

 deficiency in mineral matter. Fairly complete analyses were therefore made 

 of the ash of grasses from affected' and . unaffected areas, and the lime- 

 magnesia-potash ratio and the lime-potashrphosphoric acid ratio discussed.. 



