3u2 Tlie Farmer^s Veterinary Adviser. 



troduced througli the rectum will detect a want of sym- 

 metry on the two sides, from bulging, irregular swellings 

 at different points. In more advanced stages the bones 

 break and crumble under the body's weight and the ani- 

 mal remains constantly down, unable to rise. A depraved 

 appetite and a tendency to eat all sorts of unnatural ob- 

 jects, though a common symptom in breeding cows, is ex- 

 cessive in many of these cases, and the patient mostly 

 loses flesh rapidly, though some wiU remain fat for a 

 length of time. 



Treatment. Change the locality to one with a richer 

 fodder or bring the wholesome fodder to the animals, and 

 add, liberally, grain (barley, maize, oats, beans,) from 

 sound localities. Fresh air, sunshine and dry resting 

 places are aU important. Avoid breeding again until 

 health is fully established, or better, fatten for the butcher. 



Softening of Bones in Horses. The big-head of the 

 Mississippi valley, is a manifestation of a general fault in 

 nutrition, showing itself in all the bones of the body more 

 or less. Like the affec Jon of cows it consists in a steady 

 increase of the canals and cavities in bone, with their con- 

 tained soft or plastic matter, at the expense of the hard 

 bony structure. With the continuoTis enlargement of the 

 bone there is an extreme thinning of the microscopic bony 

 plates, until the structure can be easily cut with a knife 

 or crushed under the pressure of the finger. The inter- 

 spaces are fiUed by a red bloody mass, with the natural 

 elements more or less modified and the addition of many 

 spherical cells, or later of fat. As the disease advances 

 the bones can no longer afford a firm attachment for the 

 ligaments and tendons, but crumbling, dislocations and 

 fractures are inevitable. There is some fundamental 

 fault in assimilation, and though it may be determined 

 primarily to the face by the hard work of grinding flinty 

 maize, or its development may be precipitated by poor 

 feeding, unwholesome stabling, overwork and abuse, jei 

 its true primary cause is unknovm. It is mainly or alto- 

 gether a disease of early life, under seven years old. 



