THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
SEPTEMBER, I860. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 69. 
Communications and Cases. 
A PECULIAR AND UNUSUAL DISEASE OF THE 
OSSEOUS TISSUE IN THE HORSE; RESEM* 
BLING IN MANY OF ITS CHARACTERISTICS 
MOLLITIES OSSIUM, RHACHITIS, OSTEO¬ 
POROSIS, AND FATTY DEGENERATION OF 
BONE. 
By G. Varnell, M.R.C.V.S., 
Assistant-Professor, Royal Veterinary College, London. 
It may be asked if there is any advantage to be derived 
from recording cases of a disease the cause of which we are 
at a loss to ascertain, and respecting the cure of which we 
are equally in the dark? Were we able to say upon what 
the disease depended, so as to remove the cause, or by study¬ 
ing its pathology were thereby enabled to effect a cure, then, 
under such circumstances, it might be thought that benefit 
would be conferred upon the profession, and through it 
upon the public. 
Now, as these observations apply indirectly to the cases I 
am about to narrate, my reply to them is as follows :—I am 
of opinion that all diseases of an unusual character which 
come under our notice, especially such as frequently terminate 
fatally, or assume an epizootic or enzootic form, although 
the causes that gave rise to them may not easily be disco¬ 
vered, or the means of cure at once devised, should, never¬ 
theless, be faithfully recorded, with as much of their history 
as can be obtained. 1 do not mean that they should be 
simply registered in a case-book, but published in a widely- 
circulating journal; for were this course adopted, the details 
xxxiii. 55 
