6 MISC. PUBLICATION 3 69, U. S. DEFT. OF AGRICULTURE 



deficiency in lime, and that when animals in one portion of a district 

 were affected and in another unaffected a notable difference in the 

 lime content of the soils of the two localities usually existed. The 

 normal areas were described as being mostly dark-colored soils, well 

 supplied with lime and possessing a porous subsoil. The deficient areas 

 had light-colored, poor soils and clayey subsoils. The diseases were 

 reported to be most prevalent on geological formations like sandstones, 

 aplites, and granites, which yield silicious sandy soils, poor in lime. The 

 normal areas were located on limestone, basalt, dolerite, diorite, and 

 gabbro formations, which are well supplied with lime. Unaccountable 

 exceptions to these general observances were reported, however. A 

 comparison of soils in some of these good and poor regions is shown 

 in table 1. 



Table 1. — Comparison of composition of soils from coastal areas of New South 

 Wales on which animals were affected and on which they were unaffected with bone 

 disease 



[Guthrie and coworkers (284)] 



Character of area 



Reaction of soil 



Clay 



N 



CaO 



K 2 



P 2 6 



Affected 7 soil?) 



Usually strongly acid_.- 

 Neutral to acid- 



Percent 

 43.2 



58.0 



Percent 



0.157 



.282 



Percent 



0.168 



.465 



Percent 



0. 087 



.143 



Percent 

 047 



Unaffected (17 soils). 



. 184 









Although observations in South Africa more than a century ago 

 indicated that cattle were subject to a bone disease, no formal investi- 

 gations seem to have been conducted until fairly recently, when in 

 1918 Viljoen (575) studied the occurrence of lamziekte, a disease later 

 described by Theiler and others (554) as " an indirect consequence of 

 phosphorus deficiency, the direct cause of the disease being a 'ptomaine 

 poisoning' brought about by infection of carcass debris with a specific 

 toxigenic saprophyte ; an anaerobic bacterium reminiscent of, but not 

 identical with, Bacillus hotulinus." Viljoen reported that in the 

 Bechuanaland area lamziekte was most prevalent on limestone and 

 dolomite formations. Sandy soils, especially shallow ones or those 

 mixed with limestone, seemed to be the most common formation on 

 which the disease occurred. He stated that lamziekte was unknown 

 or very rare on farms where the soil formation is a deep alluvial one. 

 He believed that the moisture relationships of the soils were very 

 important, for he observed that the disease appeared most commonly 

 on farms where the soil formation is such that very little moisture is 

 retained. Plants growing in such soils quickly responded to changes 

 in the climatic conditions. 



This relationship between climate and the occurrence of bone disease 

 had already been indicated by Von Gohren (217), and Lewite (348) 

 had found in 1907 that oat plants grown in dry years, characterized 

 by outbreaks of bone diseases near Leipzig, contained less phosphorus 

 and more calcium than did the normal plant. Viljoen, however, 

 appears to be the first to relate this phenomenon to such definite soil 

 characteristics as structure and the water relationships. 



Further investigations by Theiler, Green, and du Toit (554) in 

 1924 confirmed the effect of climate as well as soil on plant composition 

 and the occurrence of deficiency diseases. Thus, in table 2 the phos- 

 phorus contents of the vegetation consumed by cows suffering from 

 osteomalacia and lamziekte in South Africa are given for different 

 times of the year. 



