RICKETS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
331 
seen even in rural districts, ” to the enlargements of the 
joints and the distortion of the limbs; and probably the 
same disease is included by Hertwig under the head of 
Fractures, when he says " the bones of some dogs are spe- 
cially liable to fractures, because for want of proper pabulum 
they have become brittle ; this is the case in very old dogs, 
but also in some young ones which have been fed chiefly 
on sour bread” ( Les Maladies des Ckiens et leur Traitement ; 
translated into French by Ad. Scheler, p. 346). Dr. Dick 
has recorded cases of rickets in young greyhounds, and 
has described the condition of the bones in a way that 
leaves no doubt as to the identity of the disease in children 
and puppies. Professor Dick ( loc . cit.) says that rickets is 
common in puppies. The writer once had a puppy which 
was probably affected with rickets, though the nature of the 
disease was not recognised at the time ; the animal was 
brought up by hand, and was not well taken care of, one 
result of which was that one of its thigh bones was frac- 
tured ; the fracture united rapidly, but the puppy continued 
to grow thinner and weaker, and shortly before death it 
could hardly walk. At the time, it was thought that the 
enlargement of the joints was only apparent and due to the 
general emaciation; but this was probably incorrect. 
Birds. — Young poultry of various kinds are liable to be- 
come rickety. Dr. Cumin says that whole broods of young 
ducks and geese suffer from swelling of the joints (this, how- 
ever, might refer to rheumatism or to synovitis). Dr. Horner, 
in some remarks on “ spinal disease,” states that “ rickets or 
distortion of the spine” occurs in certain delicate breeds of 
fowls ; that it comes on at the age of two or three months, 
and is first shown by “leg weakness;” he says that the spine 
becames laterally distorted, and that the distortion generally 
gets worse with age (Moubray’s Poultry, by J. A. Meall and 
Dr. Horner, 1854, p. 494). “ Leg weakness” is, however, 
assigned by Tegetmeier ( The Poultry-Book , p. 332) entirely 
to rapid growth and increase in weight without proportionate 
development of muscular power; an account which seems 
to throw some doubt on the truly rickety nature of the dis- 
ease described by Horner. A fuller account of deformities 
of the osseous system in poultry is to be found in the Gar- 
dener's Chronicle (1850, p. 618), where nothing is said about 
weakness of the legs; but mention is made of the frequency, 
in turkeys and fowls, of a peculiar distortion of the keel of 
the sternum, and of angular (not lateral ) curvature of the 
spine. Water-birds and gallinaceous game birds are said not 
to be subject to the disease. In the same Journal (1862, 
