GENERAL DISEASES. 32 1 



being soft, muscular action and weight bring about the various 

 deformities met with in this disease. The morbid unhealthy 

 state of system created by inter-breeding, has a strong in- 

 fluence in the production of a rachitic diathesis. The bones 

 of the limbs, the fore ones, more particularly, are those gene- 

 rally distorted. The facial bones are not unfrequently very 

 prominent or bulging, giving the countenance a swollen ap- 

 pearance. 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 paUid, 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 pro- 

 duction of rickets, and in addition, or independent of this 

 evil, may be named bad food, impure air, close confinement, 

 and overfeeding — especially with matter deficient in bone- 

 making properties — or insuflScient food. Remove, however, 

 all these predisposing causes, allow good food and plentiful, 

 fresh air and cleanliness, but deny exercise, aind the result, 

 i.e., so far as the deformity of limbs are 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 circum- 

 stanced 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 remem- 

 bered are not at this age set, give way under the superin- 

 cumbent 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 



7\ 



