Abstract
Rickets is a constitutional disease of childhood,
Characterised by deformities of the skeleton,- such as
bending of the diaphyses,swelling of the epiphyses,and
the so- called "rickety rosary" or enlargements at the
junction of the ribs with their cartilages,- and
general impairment of nutrition.
The disease is almost always of long duration,.
usually with an introductory stage of weeks or months,
and a course mostly extending over months or years.
Its beginning is mostly gradual,and its final recovery
slow. It is complicated with.,or dependent on,disorders
of the digestive or respiratory apparatuses,which are.
preceded by a disposition that is probabltf created by
an undue width of the arteries.
It exhibits among its prominent symptoms muscular
debility; perspiration;anomalies of the subcutaneous
tissue,which is either very much infiltrated with fat
or devoid of it;disturbances of the intellectual and
moral functions,and of those of the large thoracic and
abdominal viscera and lymphatic glands;the changes in
the latter perhaps outlasting all others.
The affections of the osseous system,mentioned
above,give rise to a peculiar physiognomy,in the absence of which the clinical picture of the disease is
not complete or characteristic.
