... called "rachitis," is an inflammatory affection of young, growing bones, and mostly involves the ribs and long bones of the legs. It consists in a failure of the organism to deposit lime salts in bone, and for this reason the bones do not ossify so rapidly as they should. The cartilaginous ends of the bones grow rapidly, but ossification does not keep pace with it. The bones become long and their ends bend at the joints, the legs become crooked, and the joints are large and irregular. All the bones affected ... — Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture