Live Stock. 



450 



[May, 1909. 



of phosphorus pentoxide, or in the ratio 

 of 9: 100. This is confirmed by the 

 occurrence of a bone disease, known as 

 "bran rachitis," "bran disease" or 

 "miller's horse rickets " which is observed 

 in animals fed largely on a bran diet. 



It is thus evident that, whether osteo- 

 porosis be due to a specific organism 

 or not, a condition of the bones of ani- 

 mals similar to that which results from 

 the disease may be induced by the 

 use of a diet containing a low ratio 

 of lime to phosphorus pentoxide. 



It may be well to give a table showing 

 the ratio of lime to phosphorus pentoxide 

 in the ash of some typical foods. Ignor- 

 ing for the moment the actual quantities 

 of these constituents and giving only 

 the ratios in which they occur, the 

 following table has been prepared from 

 analyses of average samples as given by 

 Wolff and Wariugton :— 



THE MINERAL, CONSTITUENTS OF POODS, 



Lucerne hay 100 ... 478 (Wolff) 



Crimson clover hay 100 .. 445 „ 



Red clover hay ... 100 ... 361 (Warington) 



Do do ... 100 .. 359 (Wolff) 



Meadow hay .. 100 ... 262 (Warington) 



Do do 100 ... 247 (Wolff) 



White clover hay 100 . . 227 



Oat straw ... 100 .... 181 



Oat grain ... 100 ... 16 

 Oats (whole plant, 



green) ... 100 77 

 Oats { „ 



ripe) .. 100 .. 62 (Warington) 



Barley (whole plant) 100 .. 44 

 Mealies or maize 



(grain) ..100 .. 4 (Wolff) 



Wheat bran ... 100 ... 9 



Linseed cake ... 100 ... 24 



While the following are the ratios 

 calculated from our analyses of South 

 African grown pooduce i— 



Phosphorus 



pentoxide. Lime. 



Oat hay(Malmesbury, Cape Colony) ...100 23 



„ (Middleburg, „ ) ... 100 57 



„ (Harmon, „ „ ) ... 100 65 



,, (Magaliesberg, Transvaal ) ... U0 44 



,, (Pretoria, „ ) ... 100 62 



„ (Potchefstrom, „ ) ... 100 53 



100 



Mean 



Rhodes grass hay (Chloris 



guy ana) ... 100 250 



Sweet grass hay (Chloris virgata) ... 100 139 



Boer manna hay (Setaria italica) ... 100 94 



Blue grass hay (Andropogon hirtus) 100 168 



Teffgrasshay (Ei-agrostis Abyssinica)\W 125 



Veld hay (mixed grasses) ...100 320 



Teosinte hay (Euchloena Mexicana) 100 203 



Golden millet hay (Setaria sp.) ... 100 88 



Californian green moha {Setaria sp.) 100 137 

 Broom corn millet (Panieum 



crus-galli) . 100 174 



Phosphorus 



Pentoxide. Lime. 



Lucerne hay (Medicago sativa) ... 100 431 



Cow-pea hay ( Vigna catjang) ...100 248 



Velvet bean hay (Mttcuim utili?) ... 100 581 



Maple pea hay (Pisum arvense) ... 100 202 



Meali stalks (Zea mays) ... 100 136 



Kaffir corn stalks (Soujhum) ...100 100 



Millet stalk ... 100 67 



Oat straw ... 100 209 



Wheat straw ... 100 250 



Tall fescue grass (Festuca elatior) ...100 258 



Burnetgreen, (Poteriuin sanguisorba) 100 485 

 Sheep's parsley, green (Petri sdinum 



sativum) ... 100 312 

 Prickly pear "leaves " (Opuntia ficus 



indica) ... 100 1,260 



There can be little doubt that animals 

 may be gradually accustomed to live 

 upon a diet that is at first unsuited to 

 their requirements, and I have every 

 reason to believe that the South African 

 bred horse is less liable to succumb to 

 osteoporosis, or to suffer from deficien- 

 cies in the composition of the ash of his 

 food, than are imported animals. 



Interesting accounts of outbreaks of 

 osteoporosis among imported horses, 

 donkeys and mules in 1898 and in 1901 

 at the Military camps of Wynberg and 

 Middleburg in Cape Colony are given 

 by Lapt. Lane, who particularly noticed 

 the improvement effected in the diseased 

 animals by a change in diet from oat- 

 hay, mealies and bran to one containing 

 lucerne, green forage and bone meal. 

 These cases afford strong confirmation 

 of the success of the treatment which 

 the theory here adduced would indicate 

 as beneficial, though the treatment was 

 adopted rather with the object of 

 increasing the amount of both phos- 

 phoric acid and lime in the food, than 

 of increasing the ratio of the latter to 

 the former (which indeed was, in my 

 opinion, the cause of its success). 



It will be seen from the above con- 

 siderations that the writer is of opinion 

 that it is not the poverty of South 

 African grown produce in lime and 

 phosphoric acid (as compared with 

 European grown food-stuffs of the same 

 kind) which is to be blamed for the 

 pre valance of bone troubles among 

 animals thei e, but rather the practice 

 of feeding such animals exclusively 

 upon a cereal diet. 



Probably in Europe, if horses and 

 mules were fed entirely upon oat-hay, 

 similar diseases would result, though 

 there is some evidence that in certain 

 districts in Africa, both the soil and 

 the crops grown on it are poorer in 

 lime than the corresponding crops 

 grown elsewhere. Our analysis of 

 Transvaal soils indicate that they are, 



