1854 . 
THE CULTIVATOR; 
159 
Bone-Sickness in Cattle. 
In the Country Gentleman of Feb. 22d, I observed 
the inquiries of Mr. Tuttle concerning a morbid ap¬ 
petite his cows had acquired for chewing old bones and 
such like, and at the time of reading, had thoughts of 
writing a reply, only that I expected some one nearer 
you would do so before me. In this, expectation I have 
not been disappointed, and my object in writing now 
is to confirm as far as I may the practical conclusions 
of Professor Nash, in your paper of Feb. 23d, while at 
the same time I dissent from the reasoning by which 
he arrives at them. 
In the poorer parts of Scotland, up to twenty or thir¬ 
ty years ago, a disease used to prevail similar in .many 
respects to the bone-sickness of America. In cold sea¬ 
sons, bleak situations, and poor pastures, not only cows 
but work oxen, and sometimes even young cattle, would 
be attacked by it—would become stiff, dejected and 
hide-bound—would lose flesh and acquire a morbid 
appetite just as Mr. Tuttle well describes. Since the 
introduction of bone-dust and guano—a more liberal 
system of farming and drainage—and a larger propor¬ 
tion of root crops, all this has mostly disappeared; 
and so far, for the practical purpose of the farmer, the 
chemical solution of the professor is correct. Beyond 
this, however, I cannot endorse his ideas, nor need I 
remind him that in explaining such a subject, science 
requires our reasoning to be legitimate, as well as our 
conclusions applicable. 
Where is the proof that in this disease the bones are 
actually affected ? Or if they be, that it is by a defi¬ 
ciency of their earthy constituents 1 In samples that 
I have seen a number of years ago in Scotland, where 
the same ideas about the bones being in fault were 
sometimes entertained, the deficiency seemed rather to 
be in the organic part, and the condition was only in 
keeping with the general wasting of the other organic 
tissues of the body. Would it not be well, therefore, 
to ascertain by actual examination, the deficiency of 
the bones in earthy matter, before founding a hypothe¬ 
sis on the presumption of their being so 3 
Then about the symptoms. Mr. Tuttle says his cows 
“ have a hankering for bones, boards , chips and old 
leather , and will take an old bone, boot or shoe, and 
chew it for hours.” Here the tendency is not to chew 
bones alone, nor seemingly so much to chew for the 
sake of swallowing, as for the pleasure merely of chew¬ 
ing ; so that if the disease is to be named from one of 
its symptoms, chewing sickness would be the more ap¬ 
propriate, while if we adopt the Professor’s second rea¬ 
son for naming it, boot and shoe sickness . is equally 
good. And again, about the kind of animals attack¬ 
ed. Though commonly cows, they may not always be 
so; and the disease may be predisposed to by the food 
being insufficient in quantity,, as well as innutritive in 
quality. 
The disease, to be understood, requires physiological 
more than chemical explanation. I need not tell Pro¬ 
fessor Nash about the important influence which mo¬ 
dern chemists attach to the saliva in the function of 
digestion. In the ruminating, more than in any other 
class of animals, digestion depends upon insalivation 
of the food. Insalivation on rumination, and this 
again on the muscular action of the rumen or paunch. 
Both the morbid appetite and the wasting and other 
symptoms, are the effects or accompaniments, of de¬ 
ranged digestion, arising from impeded action of the 
rumen. The disease known to cattle doctors of the 
last generation in Scotland,, as the “-chills,” or “stif- 
fires,” (and I believe the so-called bone-sickness of 
America to be the same,) is chronic rheumatism. In 
rheumatic disease, the white fibro-muscular tissues are 
the chief seat of the affection. The paunch or rumen 
of the cow, consists largely of this structure ;. and is 
always impaired in its action, when rheumatism as¬ 
sumes its chronic form in the other muscular tissues. 
When this condition exists for any length of time, ru¬ 
mination becomes languid or all but ceases, and the 
animal suffering by deprivation of this, the natural 
stimulus to the salivary secretion, takes to a supple¬ 
mentary. cud, in the shape of leather, sticks,, bones, or 
any other resistant fibrous substance within its reach, 
tough enough to resist its teeth, and not so hard as to 
hurt them. 
Such being the cause and connexions of the ailment, 
a word about its prevention and cuEe. I quite agree 
with your correspondent about the propriety of liberal 
and nutritious feeding as a means of prevention. Dry 
and comfortable housing and good shelter if at pas¬ 
ture, are equally so. In rheumatic disease, poverty of 
flesh is generally the predisposing, and starvation, wet 
or cold, the exciting cause. As a means of prevention, 
both these should be avoided, and as a curative agen¬ 
cy where the disease has been established, their oppo¬ 
site must be insisted on. But besides these, which 
should never be neglected, art can do something more. 
Where the animals are very weak and stiff, a large 
warm plaster upon the back and loins is advantageous;; 
and the regulating of the bowels, either by judicious 
change of food, or by mild aperient medicine and vege¬ 
table tonics and stimulants will be found of great ser¬ 
vice. It is not often that acidity of the stomach will 
be so great as to require alkaline medicine, such as 
ashes, to be given, but if such were the case, the car¬ 
bonate of ammonia, for its stimulating as well as an¬ 
tacid effects, is to be preferred. As to ground or dis¬ 
solved bones in any form, I have no belief in them, 
nor in the power of the stomach of the cow either to 
digest or assimilate them. The better way, as sug¬ 
gested by Professor Nash, is to give them in a vege¬ 
table condition. 
One hint more and I have done. I would advise 
owners of cattle when they find them addicted to this 
chewing mania, to see that nothing of a hurtful or 
poisonous description be left in their way. In Scot¬ 
land, in the neighborhood of towns or villages from 
which large quantities of manure is carried, there are 
every year numbers of cattle killed by eating refuse 
of white lead, paint cleanings and the like, yet no one 
would say that these were matters needful to supply 
their bones. The symptoms of this kind of poisoning 
are very peculiar, and I may some day give you them 
in detail,' when some of your correspondents get puz¬ 
zled by the occurrence of a case and apply to you for 
information. Meantime I am, &c., M. A. Cuming, V. S. 
St. John , N. B., March 16, 1854. 
