DISEASE OF OSSEOUS TISSUE IN THE HOUSE. 64 
Since then an opportunity has been afforded me of seeing 
Mr. Shave, who informs me that the horse in question 
belonged to a miller, who was in the habit of feeding his 
horses very largely upon bran. If, therefore, by further 
observation, it should be found that food so rich in the 
phosphates has a tendency in young animals to cause soft¬ 
ening of their bones, it will add a fact of considerable im¬ 
portance to our present stock of pathological knowledge, 
and render this account still more interesting. 
Softening of bones, in the human subject, is discussed 
at considerable length by many authors; but in no work 
that I have referred to, can I find a disease in every respect 
corresponding with the one in question. I cannot, however, 
resist making a short quotation from that ancient, but never¬ 
theless unquestionably great pathologist, Morgagni ; not 
particularly on account of his views of this disease, but to 
show that he had met with the malady; and from the number 
of cases he refers to, he must have been perfectly familiar 
with it. In book iv, letter lviii, page 35 0, he says: “ The 
bony gypsum ” (as he calls it) “ is softened in consequence 
of its being alkaline, by the acids which are thrown into 
the vessels of the bones, and that from hence it is, that 
persons subject to rheumatic and arthritic pains, are also 
subject to have their bones become soft.” 
These observations would lead to the following inference 
respecting the way in which Morgagni thinks the earthy 
matter is removed; namely, that the circulating blood con¬ 
tains an acid, which in its passage through the small vessels 
in the Haversian canals, slowly dissolves the earthy consti¬ 
tuents of their surrounding lamellae, which then become ab¬ 
sorbed, and carried away by the current of blood, finally to 
be excreted. This process (which we have no belief in) 
going on, and the deposit of the bone-earth being in abey¬ 
ance, would doubtlessly produce softening of bone, and 
also a low specific gravity of its tissue. 
Monro makes the following statement in reference to 
softening of bone. “That in some cases, from 74, 75 and 79 
parts in 100 consist of animal matter. In the worst 
form of rachitis, the compact stratum is thinned; the cells 
of the areolar structure are expanded, and filled with a gela¬ 
tinous fluid.” Such was precisely the case in many of the 
bones we examined. 
“There is not only a want of proportion of animal and 
earthy matter in these affections, but some think so much 
phosphoric acid is secreted, that the phosphate of lime, 
an insoluble salt, is converted into a biphosphate of lime, 
