586 
GEO. H. BERNS. 
it was a peculiar case, that he had never seen one before, and 
asserted that if he had been called in he would have certainly 
put the animal under experimental treatment, as the case was 
of such an unusual character. 
I willingly consented to place the patient under his care 
and he experimented with him for all of four weeks; at the 
expiration of that time the horse, being unable to masticate 
his food because of irregular, chisel-shaped molars which 
lacerated the palate, he was cast for operation upon his teeth, 
but being unable to rise again was either destroyed or died of 
exhaustion. The horse’s head I prepared for a specimen and 
it is still in my possession. Since that time I venture to say that 
over two hundred cases have come under my observation in 
practice. 1 not only became deeply interested in the disease, 
but quite enthusiastic, and at one time I could see osteo-poro- 
sis in horses when no one else could, the result being that 
quite a few extremely embarrassing mistakes were made in 
diagnosis. Without any exception everyone of the two hun¬ 
dred or more cases were found in cellar stables or in stables 
on the level of the street without cellars under them ; most all 
of them were old stables that had been used for years, with the 
floors resting upon sleepers lying in the ground. A great 
many of the stables were located in sections of the city where 
the ground had been made by filling in swamps with street 
sweepings, ashes, garbage and material of that character. In 
stables of this description, containing twenty-five horses, I con¬ 
sider it nothing unusual to find one or two cases of osteo-poro- 
sis every year, and I could mention probably seven or eight 
grocers who keep but one horse each, that have lost or been 
obliged to dispose of two, and in some two or three instances 
three horses each during the last ten years from the disease, a 
large number of which were young animals examined by me 
for soundness before they were bought. In stables on the 
second floor or stables with cellars under them, or stables 
built on spiles even if on low ground, where a free current of 
air is allowed to circulate under the floors, I have never seen 
a case that originated or developed there, further than this: I 
have seen well developed cases showing intermittent lame¬ 
ness and enlargements of the bones of the face, changed from 
