CORRESPONDENCE. 
713 
it can best be treated. Oi course death could claim but few 
victims out of the clutches of men thus amply equipped. 
To an uneducated man like me, the wide divergence of 
standard authors as to the theory and practice in this disease, 
and the number of fatal cases they record, and their admission 
of their inability to be of any service, in the light of my own 
experience, seems wonderful. 
At recurring periods the world is startled by the announce¬ 
ment of some grest discovery in medicine or bacteriology, by 
which disease is to be eliminated and death disarmed. In a 
few months it is denounced as a proven humbug and the novice 
turns away disheartened, and thinking the hill of science en¬ 
tirely too-steep for him to climb. 
One theory of big-head was that it was of malarial origin. 
Another was that it was due to feeding too exclusively with 
corn and corn fodder, deficient in the phosphates. As it was 
confined to malarial districts we were left in doubt as to which 
cause was the original one. 
Thirty years ago the disease was so common in Southern 
Illinois and Indiana that buyers were always on the alert to 
avoid being taken in, and every horse doctor looked with 
suspicion on a lame or stiff horse, and their fears were often 
realized. But, unlike Dr. Berns, we had a palliative treat¬ 
ment, which if not a cure, was regarded with much favor, and 
we were expected to patch up the unfortunate subject, so that 
he would be able for years of active service. Of course we 
could not obliterate the evidence that he had been treated, 
but aside from the unsightly scars, he was as useful as he had 
ever been. This may not have been a cure, but it served the 
purposes of the owners just as well as if it had been; and to¬ 
day, in a week’s travel in the same regions, you will not find 
a horse afflicted with osteo porosis. 
The climate and conditions have changed, the proper feed¬ 
ing is understood and corn is no longer the exclusive diet, nor 
any other one article; farmers having learned that confining 
an animal to a limited regimen is uniformly productive of 
disease. 
We dissent from the damp stable theory, for when thedis- 
