360 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
bones. His cases were more allied to osteitis fibrosa 
cystica. Paget 's disease always attacks the diaphyses 
of the bones and not the epiphyses. Goldman (5) de- 
scribed typical examples of this condition in fowls. Jost 
(6), in one communication, described a case in a horse 
which he says was identical with that condition described 
by Paget as osteitis deformans and by Virchow as leontia- 
sis ossei; he also refers to similar cases in goats and mon- 
keys. Rossweg(7) found it in goats. In wild animals the 
only suggestive article found was by Jost but the descrip- 
tion was probably of an osteoporosis and a craniosclero- 
sis which occurred in a young lion and a monkey. All the 
communications deal with either domesticated animals or 
those in capti\'ity. 
The etiolog}' of tliis condition is as obscure to-day as 
it was at the time of Paget 's first description. Prince 
thought it might be due to a defect in some peripheral 
nerve or nerve centre or to a tract degeneration. Cases 
have been reported in conjunction with a myelitis. There 
has been however little on which to base these supposi- 
tions. Paget felt that the process was at least upon an 
inflammatory basis and deduced this from the enlarge- 
ment and the excessive production of an imperfectly 
developed structure with increased blood supply. Many 
felt that rickets, osteomalacia and osteitis deformans 
were all manifestations of the same disease. A bacterial 
cause was proposed by Arcangelli who claimed the dis- 
covery of diplococci and improvement from a vaccine. 
Lancereaux(8) and Richards felt that focal infection 
played a profound role in the etiolog>\ However all other 
observers fail to isolate an organism from the bones or 
to get improvement from removal of infectious foci. 
(5) Verein Freibiirger Aerzte, May, 1902. 
(6) Arch. f. \Siss. u. Prak. Tierhk., Vol. 36, 652, 1910, and Vol. 39, 
164, 1913. 
(7) Vet. Med. Inaug. Diss. Giessen, 1913. 
(8) Traite d' Anatomie Path., 1883. 
