OSTEOPOROSIS. 
583 
waste no time, for the characteristic enlargements of the bones 
of the face and lower jaws have been frequently seen and 
recognized by all, but in many instances we are called weeks 
‘or even months before any such well developed symptoms 
exist. We find a horse lame on the near hind leg, with a his¬ 
tory that he has been lame for some time, starts off on his toe 
when first leaving the stable and warms out of it after he 
travels awhile. 
We carefully examine the hock, pastern and foot, but fail to 
find anything abnomal, excepting a slight coarseness of the 
hock. Under the circumstances we consider ourselves justi¬ 
fied to diagnose spavin, and fire and blister the hock and order 
the patient turned out to pasture for one or two months. In 
three or four weeks after the operation we are notified that 
our patient is not doing well and, requested to visit him again 
in thecountry, we find him lame in the left shoulder this time, 
otherwise apparently all right. We attribute the shoulder 
lameness to some accidental injury or perhaps rheumatism, 
prescribe a mild liniment and advise the owner to keep his 
horse tied up in a dry stable for a short time. 
Two or three weeks later we are called again, find the 
patient all crippled up across the loins. We begin to look for 
enlargement of the lower jaw, but are unable to express a posi¬ 
tive opinion; advise anti-rheumatic treatment, horse taken up 
and placed in a good dry stable. Two or three weeks later 
we are called again and find our horse with a peculiar enlon- 
gated condition of the thigh, and point of hock coming down 
to within six or eight inches of the ground when forced to 
place weight upon the affected limb, and with well marked 
enlargement of lower jaw. Of course the case is plain enough, 
we have made a mistake in our original diagnosis and caused 
the owner to spend considerable money upon an incurable 
patient. 
The premonitory symptoms, therefore, are of the greatest 
importance. Stiffness across the loins, causing the animal’s 
gait to be of a peculiar rigid character, is in my opinion the 
first and probably the most suggestive premonitory symptom 
in the majority of cases; next of importance is obscure lame- 
