PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 585 



Bibra and Milne — Edwards, and Heitzmann claims to have 

 obtained similar results by subjecting pups and kittens to 

 a diet destitute of calcareous salts, but rich in lactic acid. 

 The experimental animals, from the second week, exhibited 

 a swelling of the epiphyses, which accentuated up to the 

 fifth week, together with a bronchial and intestinal catarrh, 

 and incurvation of the bones of the limbs. After five or 

 six months the diaphyses were flexible, and when slaugh- 

 tered at the end of eleven months the autopsies disclosed 

 lesions analogous to those of osteomalacia. Rabbits sub- 

 jected to the same dietary did not develop the osseous de- 

 generation. 



These experiments are not decisive. There was soften- 

 ing of the bones, but no formation of the spongoid or chon- 

 droid tissue, characteristic of rachitis. The continuation of 

 Heitzmann's experiments by Tripier and Toussaint shows 

 that young cats cannot be made rachitic at will by feeding 

 exclusively on meat, even by exposing the animals to wet 

 and cold. But in spite of this, it seems that the dearth of 

 lime salts and phosphates in the food, or the insufficiency 

 of their absorption governs the etiology of rachitis. 



Recently Pornmay produced lesions of the trunk, limbs 

 and head, and spontaneous fractures in birds, that appeared 

 analogous to rachitis, by feeding them exclusively on bread 

 crumbs, yellow of egg and meat deprived of its juices. But 

 opposite results were obtained by Chossat and Friedleben, 

 who showed that the privation of calcareous salts caused 

 a rarefaction of these salts without producing histological 

 alterations similar to those of rachitis. More recently Del- 

 court sought to produce rachitis experimentally in young 

 animals by means of lactic acid, the lactic ferment of Heuppe 

 and phosphate of potash, and came to the conclusion that 

 lime salts play but a secondary role in the pathogenesis of 



