RACHITISM 485 
the lower maxillary had lost their consistency ; the superiors were swollen. 
Mastication was impossible, in a three-year-old mare seen by Benjamin 
aand Redon. 
The pathogeny of rachitism is yet obscure. L: Lafosse accuses bad 
hygienic conditions, damp habitations, those badly kept, exposed to the 
north where sunlight never goes. Feeding with fodder poor in calcareous 
substances has been incriminated. Guerin, Roloff, Voit, Chossat, 
Milne, Edwards, have produced it artificially in dogs and pigs, by sub- 
mitting them toa régime poor in lime salts. But Tripier and Weiske, 
who renewed the same experiments, failed in obtaining the same results. 
For some authors, Heitzmann among them, the rachitic bone is decalci- 
fied by lactic or phosphoric acid; the administration of the first by the 
digestive canal and in subcutaneous injec- ; 
tions has produced the disease in young 
carnivora (dogs and cats). The negative 
experiments of Toussaint and Tripier 
upset this theory. Israchitism the result: 
of an inflammation of the bone? and 
does phosphorus, recommended by Kas- 
sowitz, give rise really to a beneficial in- 
flammatory work? Is there always, at the 
beginning of the disease, dilatation of 
the stomach and digestive troubles, as 
said. by Comby? Those are as many 
‘unanswered questions of the day. Rach- 
itism is after all but the result of a unique 
cause ; it isthe result of a “ degeneration ' 
with mmmerous causes? All thae which MT Becnte geet. Frans: 
: : 4 photograph.) 
weakens a young subject, that disturbs its 
nutrition, favors the softening of bone. Lafosse has remarked that the 
invasion of the disease occurs with the time of weaning; hence the indi- 
cations not to deprive the young subjects too early of the mother’s milk, 
which alone possesses the digestible qualities necessary to the stomach of 
the newly born. Potatoes in great quantity predispose pigs to rachitism. 
Roll has seen it in young lions fed with meat, free from bone. ‘The same 
has been observed in dogs.! ‘The too simple uniformity in food free 
from condiments, and specially want of outdoor exercise and natural light, 
10On two occasions, the translator had the opportunity to witness corroboration 
‘of the remark of Roll. A large litter of cubs being left toa lioness to nurse, the 
tittle fellows became rachitic after being weaned and being fed with boneless meat. 
Most of them died except two which were fed artificially with plenty of bone dust, 
but they remained always deformed, and more or less weak. 
