78 Veterinary Medicine. 



one. Nessler who analyzed the hay and water, furnished to 

 cattle suffering from this disease in the Black Forest found a 

 notable absence of the soda salts. In others in which osteo 

 malacia was the prominent symptom the lack was in phosphate 

 of lime as well. In the nature of things the soil that has been 

 continuously cropped to exhaustion is robbed of both earthy and 

 alkaline salts, and the animals fed on its exclusive products suffer 

 not only as regards the nutrition of the bone, but also of the soft 

 parts. Hence Trasbot says that in osteo malacia, pica is never 

 absent. Roloff and Roll hold that it is the first symptom of 

 osteo malacia. In South Africa where the land has been cropped 

 with oats year after year without manure and as long as it will 

 bear, the disease became prevalent in the street car horses fed on 

 the oats, and was corrected by the addition of phosphates, or 

 phosphate bearing food, to the ration. In the older dairying 

 farms of New York which have been kept under grass for a 

 great length of time, and all the milk products sold off, depraved 

 appetite in all its forms is qnite frequent. Where the land is 

 originally light and sandy and naturally deficient in lime, osteo 

 malacia is often a concurrent disorder. The two conditions may 

 however occur independently of each other, and especially may 

 pica appear alone, in keeping with the greater solubility of the 

 soda and potash salts and the readiness with which these can be 

 washed out of the soil, while the less soluble lime salts in part 

 remain. 



Lemcke, Haubner and Siedamgrotzky attribute the disease to 

 a nervous disorder. I^emcke indeed traces the disorder to a lack 

 of phosphorus, and claims that osteo malacia only supervenes 

 where the rheumatic diathesis is also present. 



It may be shortly stated that the disease prevails especially on 

 granitic or sandy soils, or on those which are mainly composed 

 of organic debris (peat, muck). Limestone soils and those 

 which contain any considerable proportion of potash or soda are 

 usually exempt. 



Digestive disorder though starting from a different point may 

 tend to the same end. A hyperacidity of the stomach has been 

 observed to coincide with the malady, and by interfering with 

 easy and normal digestion, it may stand in the way of such 

 assimilation as is necessary to vigorous health. 



