GENERAL DISEASES 153 
is also the breast bone which becomes S shaped. The present 
writers conducted an autopsy on a young turkey in which the 
skeleton was apparently wholly lacking in mineral constituents. The 
.larger bones could be bent with the fingers and sliced with a knife. 
The bird was reported as being one of a number affected in a similar 
manner. 
Treatment. Normal feeding should be the first matter con- 
sidered. Birds should be supplied with dry, warm quarters, with 
access to grass if possible. Feed coarsely cracked grain, cracklings, 
or meat meal and burned oyster shells. Calcium phosphate may be 
administered in doses of .5 to 2.0 grams per bird, according to size. 
Small amounts of sulphate of iron may be given by putting this ma- 
terial in the drinking water in the proportion of one or two parts 
per 1000 parts cf water. No treatment should be attempted on 
those birds liable to become cripples. Such should be killed. 
LEG WEAKNESS 
Leg weakness is a term designating unsteadiness of gait, which 
may be followed by total inability to stand on the legs. At first 
the bird otherwise appears healthy, but soon shows the effect of in- 
ability to compete with its fellows for food. If the condition con- 
stitutes paralysis, “limberneck” may also be observed. Leg 
weakness also is observed in rachitis. It occurs in well fed young 
growing birds under conditions not well understood. Under such 
circumstances the ration should be reduced and green feed should 
be supplied. At other times it occurs in closely confined birds kept 
on a monotonous diet. In such cases trouble disappears when birds 
have access to the soil with consequent variety of diet. . 
Polyneuritis of fowls, a condition induced by feeding polished 
rice or similar products, is the one form of leg weakness, the etiology 
of which is understood. The affection may be produced experi- 
mentally in from fifteen to twenty-five days by feeding a diet limited 
exclusively to polished rice, while a diet of natural unpolished rice 
does not produce this result. The condition of the fowl designated 
polyneuritis is generally regarded as identical with the disease of 
man called beri beri, which latter is common among people living 
almost exclusively on polished rice. It is evident that the rice hull 
contains substances, the absence of which induces neuritis. These 
have been designated vitamines. 
Vitamines of this character are not restricted to rice. It has 
