General Diseases. 343 
those generally distorted. The facial bones are not unfre- 
quently very prominent or bulging, giving the countenance 
a swollen appearance. The loins are generally narrow, 
the hocks bent in and enlarged, giving the hind-parts an 
undeveloped or wasted look (Fig. 32). The coat is staring 
and harsh, the mucous membranes are pallid, the sclerotic 
of the eye being particularly white, and the animal, taking 
it altogether, is an unthrifty, stunted, miserable-looking 
object. 
I have mentioned inter-breeding as influential in the 
production of rickets, and in addition, or independent of 
this evil, may be named bad food, impure air, close confine- 
ment, and overfeeding—especially with matter deficient in 
bone-making properties,—or insufficient food. Remove, 
however, all these predisposing causes, allow good food and 
plentiful fresh air, and cleanliness, but deny exercise, and the 
result, z.¢, so far as the deformity of limbs is concerned, 
will be precisely the same—not from any deficiency in the 
structural proportion of bone, but from neglecting rules 
necessary for symmetrical and proportionate growth. 
Animals so circumstanced are like unpruned trees—the 
trunk is being fed and the branches allowed to grow as 
they may. The inclination of heavily-framed puppies to 
lie down, if not at liberty, is well known, and this is 
especially the case with mastiffs. The consequence is that 
the body becomes too heavy for the limbs to support ; the 
latter, the bones of which it must be remembered are not 
at this age set, give way under the superincumbent weight, 
knuckle over or bend outwards ; and it is this condition, 
arising from the circumstances named, which is frequently 
mistaken by breeders and rearers of dogs for rickets. 
Rickets in the human subject involves bones other than 
those supporting weight, hence general deformity. This is 
rarely or ever the case with dogs (excepting, as mentioned, 
in the facial bones), more particularly as regards the ribs 
and spinal column ; therefore it may be taken as a general 
