LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
975 
which is almost completely reducible to gelatine by boiling, and 
two thirds of earthy and alkaline salts. The special constituents 
of bone are present in the following proportions : 
Cartilage .... 
. 32-17 
Blood-vessels .... 
. 1-13 
Phosphate of lime 
. 51-04 
Carbonate of lime 
. 11-30 
Pluate of lime .... 
. 2-00 
Phosphate of magnesia 
. 1-16 
Chloride of sodium . 
. 1-20 
100*00 
These constituents are intimately blended, so that if a bone is 
burned its shape is preserved by the earthy residue, though liable 
to crumble on the slightest touch ; and if a bone be steeped for 
some time in dilute hydrochloric acid, the earthy substance dis- 
solves out of it, and the animal basis, retaining the perfect shape of 
the bone, may be twisted about in any form. Considerable diversity 
exists in the constituents of bones at different periods of life. In 
young animals there is a large proportion of the gelatinous basis, 
and comparatively less of earthy matter of the earthy salts; the 
chief is always true earth or phosphate of lime, but this is far more 
in excess of other salts in very young animals than in adult ones. 
Carbonate of lime increases with age. The proportions of earthy 
and animal matter vary singularly, according to the food of which 
the animal partakes. In herbivora there is far more carbonate of 
lime than in carnivora ; and in disease remarkable changes occur, 
as in osteo porosis and cachexia ossifraga, arising from some marked 
deficiency of the salts of lime in the food or water, or some diseased 
or morbid condition of the bone itself. 
Having thus briefly glanced at the structure of bone, I will at 
once proceed to the more practical part of my paper. It is accord- 
ing as we carefully and correctly diagnose cases of lameness, whether 
arising from fracture or other causes, and the advice we give, as to 
treatment, &c., that a very large proportion of the success or failure 
of every veterinary surgeon depends ; and I have no hesitation in 
saying, that there is no question on which you can obtain such a 
diversity of opinion from qualified veterinary surgeons as you can 
in cases of lameness. To illustrate this, I will, as briefly as possible, 
give you one striking example. 
About two years ago, one of the horses belonging to the Omnibus 
Company was taken up by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, for being lame. I had been at the stable the day pre- 
viously, and the horse was not lame then. I examined him after 
he was taken up, and feeling sure that the lameness was recent 
and had occurred at work after the horse had left the stable, I 
thought it was one of those cases that did not fairly come under 
the Cruelty Act. I at once had the liorse examined by Mr. Gilbert 
