332 
RICKETS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
p. 1038), in an article on turkeys, we find it stated that, if 
they are neglected when young, they become debilitated, 
their heads grow too large for their bodies, and their joints 
enlarge. 
Causes of Rickets in Animals . — We find that many autho- 
rities consider rickets, or at least a tendency to rickets, in a 
high degree hereditary. This is the opinion especially of 
those who place rickets in the same category as the scrofulous 
and tubercular affections, and these authors lay great stress 
on the influence of breeding in-and-in upon the production 
of tubercular disease and rickets. We have already alluded 
to the opinion that certain breeds of mal-formed animals are 
considered by some high authorities to have been produced 
by the transmission of rickety deformities. Livingston 
(quoted by Youatt) says of the so-called Otter breed of sheep, 
that their legs are short, <f and turned out in such a manner 
as to appear rickety They appear as if their legs 
had been broken, and set by some awkward surgeon” {Sheep, 
their Breeds, Management, ancl Diseases , p. 133). Several 
writers believe that some breeds of terrier dogs have de- 
scended from rickety ancestors. Thus Youatt, Blaine, and 
Moncourrier ( Essai sur le Rachitis ou L } Osteomalaxie, 1803) 
refers to a small breed of wry-legged terriers which is be- 
lieved to have originated in some rickety specimens in which 
the head, belly, and joints enlarged more than the other parts, 
and in which the deformity of the legs “ remaining after the 
disease, has transmitted itself from generation to generation.” 
Blaine {Canine Pathology, 1831, p. 17), however, complicates 
the question by saying that many varieties of dogs are the 
“ effect of monstrosity, or have arisen from some anomaly in 
the reproductive or breeding process,” an opinion which 
seems to show a want of discrimination between deformity 
and an inherited tendency. Improper food, wet, cold, and 
bad ventilation are, however, all mentioned as important 
factors in the causation of rickets by many veterinarians. 
One author especially mentions that chickens hatched late 
in the season are more liable to deformities of the bones than 
those which are the produce of earlier broods. Good food, 
especially such as is rich in oily matter, is recommended for 
rickety animals. — British Medical Journal. 
[In our next number we hope to make some remarks on 
the disease known as rickets in lambs. These cases are of 
frequent occurrence, and investigation has shown that they 
do not depend on disease of the osseous structure. — Eds.] 
