Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine / by G. Moussu and Jno. A.W. Dollar.

  • Moussu, G. (Gustave), 1864-1945.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine / by G. Moussu and Jno. A.W. Dollar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/846 (page 4)
    DISEASES OP BONES. ciiculation and accumulates in the tissues, checking the processes which end in ossification or, in the case of adults, even leading to decalcification. It seems fairly well established that experimental administration of lactic acid to animals causes diminution in the quantity of calcium salts contained in the hones (Siedamgrotsky, Hofmeister). On the other hand however Arloing and Tripier failed to produce rachitis experimentally. Bouchard revived this theory in a somewhat modified form. He con- siders that calcium salts are absorbed as carbonates and chlorides and phosphoric acid as phospho-glyceric acid. The reaction which these compounds undergo within the organism ends in the formation of the phosphate of calcium necessary to ossification, but this “ phosphate of ossification ” cannot be deposited if the organism contains an excess of lactic acid. Theory of inflammation. A third theory which until now has received very little support is that called the theory of inflammation. The general lesions which characterise rachitis are regarded as resulting from primary attacks of ostitis and osteo-periostitis. The cause of these forms of inflammation is not suggested. To the above views may he added that more recently emitted by Dr. Chaumier, according to which rachitis is of an infectious nature. Unfortunately no proof of this has yet been adduced. GENERAL DISEASES. RACHITIS. Rachitis is a disease of youth, and is common both to the human species and to all domestic animals. It is characterised by irregularities in development and by imperfect consolidation of the hones. The boundary between rachitis and osseous cachexia is difficult to define and in fact at the present moment the two diseases can scarcely he defined with exactitude. Rachitis again is often complicated with softening of the bones, disease of the limbs, arrested development, etc., but it must not be forgotten that although the irregularities in ossification and development of the skeleton are the symptoms most striking to the eye, they do not stand alone, and that from the point of view of development all the tissues, including the muscles, are more or less aflected and that most of the physiological functions such as digestion and the secretion of urine are deranged. Etiology. One of the principal causes suggested is that of heredity, and so far as human beings are concerned, one seldom fails to discover the rachitic taint. Certainly the offspring of individuals marked by any debilitating disease like alcoholism, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc., are poorly