362 DADDS VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERy. 
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. It 
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 net 
ve procured, substitute for it phosphate of lime. 
OsrEo Porosis (KNowN as Bia HEAD AnD Bie Jaw). 
The terms big head and big jaw are used by husbandmen aul 
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; aud should the disease multiply in a ratio 
equa! 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 ortgin—is “inbred ”—and that, as the saying is, “ constitutea 
the root of the evil.” The disease having been pronounced incur- 
able, our only hopes of success in putting a stop to its propaga- 
(ion ani 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 
to far as the enlargement, dilatation, and softening of the jaw- 
