STATE HYGIENE 631 



stress on this, as on p. 156 will be found the statement that 

 there are no diseases of the lower animals attributable to 

 this cause. Since those pages passed through the press the 

 Eeport quoted has been received, and we do not hesitate to 

 give prominence to Hutcheon's observations, which may 

 be fully accepted from such a reliable source. 



Cattle, sheep, goats, and sometimes horses, suffer over 

 certain areas of South Africa from a highly inflamed con- 

 dition of the cancellous tissue of the bones of the limbs, 

 especially those of the fore-legs ; the bone tissue softens 

 and may readily be cut with a knife. What appears to be 

 another form of the same disease is a paralytic condition 

 of the hind-limbs, associated with a serous effusion into the 

 brain and spinal cord, and inflammation and softening of 

 the bones of the limbs. 



Inoculation experiments fail to reproduce the disease, so 

 there is no direct evidence of its being infective. 



Hutcheon regards it as being due to the absence of 

 calcium phosphate from the food. This he replaces arti- 

 ficially by the administration of bone meal, or bone ash, 

 which acts as a preventive, and the disease entirely dis- 

 appears. This observer is convinced of the preventive 

 effects of bone meal ; he says if given in sufficient quantity 

 its action is most complete ; it is of course aided by liberal 

 feeding. The paralytic form of the disease is very fatal. 



EPIZOOTIC OPHTHALMIA. 



Epizootic Ophthalmia both of horses and cattle is 

 common in South Africa. The form affecting the equine 

 is the ordinary periodic ophthalmia of Europe, but in an 

 epizootic form. The cattle disease appears to be limited 

 to the cornea, and is curable by antiseptics; the horse 

 ophthalmia is unaffected by treatment and most destructive. 

 Both diseases are probably microbic ; the ophthalmia of the 

 horse cannot be transmitted by any known form of inocula- 

 tion. 



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