BONE SOFTENING 
37 
of proper hygienic conditions were the cause of the trouble. 
The owners took my advice, and converted the floor above 
into a stable, and since the horses have been kept up there 
no case of the disease has developed, and those among the 
affected which were treated recovered sufficiently to be able 
to do hard work for months past. 
I have never been able to trace the disease to even a 
suspicion of a hereditary predisposition. 
BONE SOFTENING. 
By M. D. Hoge, Jr., M.D., Richmond, Va. 
A Paper read before the Virginia State Veterinary Medical Association. 
As the subjects osteoporosis and osteomalacia in ani¬ 
mals are among the most obscure, and our society having 
entered upon their investigation, I have thought that a short 
review of kindred diseases, as observed in man, might from 
analogy give us some possible insight into the causes of these 
mysterious troubles. 
Rachitis or rickets was first accurately described by an 
Englishman, Glisson, in 1650. It first made its appearance 
in England about the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
and even to this day it is called by the Germans die Englische 
krankheit, “ the English disease.’’ 
The true and real cause is at present unknown, in spite of 
the great number of careful observations and painstaking 
investigations. It is, however, certain that its development 
is promoted by defective nourishment, unsanitary surround¬ 
ings, as damp, crowded quarters in large cities, and in artifi¬ 
cially fed children. 
It has been found possible to produce the disease or cer¬ 
tain similar changes in the bones of young animals by giving 
foods as free from lime as possible, and by the administration 
of large doses of lactic acid or small quantities of phosphorus. 
The changes this produced bear an analogy to rachitis or 
rather to bone formation, still the specific astiological factor 
is wanting. 
Some authorities contend that the disease bears some re- 
