Experimental rickets : the effect of cereals and their interaction with other factors of diet and environment in producing rickets / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Edward Mellanby
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Experimental rickets : the effect of cereals and their interaction with other factors of diet and environment in producing rickets / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    19 Summary. Experiments on puppies have been described in which cereals were varied m diets deficient in anti-rachitic vitamin. It has been shown that equal weights of similarly cooked cereals have different oatmeriPr°dUtln8 effects ,on PuPPies- Of the substances tested WhTte flofr°haff °rS far the most “tense action.’ wnite flour had the least action in this respect. Rice occupied an intermediate position and was somewhat worse than white flour workyonPPthU ce f rickete-P™ducing than rice, but further ork on this cereal is necessary. From other experiments not recorded above it would appear that maize is more rickets-pro- ARhofdhU, V bUt 18 1Wt 80 potent in tWs respect as oatmeal Although the point was not examined closely, there seemed to be no great difference between the rickets-producing effects of polished and_ unpolished rice. The action of whole meal Horn was not dissimilar from that of white flour. Commercial wheat o-erm however, when forming 20 per cent, of the total cereal eaten ’ hirstened the onset of rickets under the conditions of these experi- ments,- 1S sald that whole meal flour contains only 1-5 per cent germ (Osborne and Mendel [3]), so that the little difference in effect between white flour and whole meal flour in these experiment might be expected m spite of the action of commercial wheat germ above described. The intense rickets-producing effect of oatmeal does not seem to depend on the fact that it I a manu IV. THE INTERACTION OF CEREALS WITH OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE DIET. experiments have been described which deal primarily th the effect ot cereals on calcification, and evidence has been a c uced which seems to show that there are one or more constitu¬ ents ot some cereals which interfere directly with calcification processes. In earlier publications I have supplied evidence that a fat- ■ oluble vitamin (anti-rachitic vitamin) is particularly concerned in promoting the calcification of bone [1. a, b, c, cl]. I wish now to describe experiments made primarily to see how foodstuffs contain¬ ing these different dietetic factors, the one class promoting and the other interfering with calcification, work in relation to one another and to other dietetic and environmental influences. While but hAIe is known of the chemistry of these substances and even less as o how they act m the body in bringing about such profound cnanges, yet it seemed necessary to investigate the question of interaction among themselves and to see the degree to which each could modify the influence of the other. Only in this way could adequate appraisement be made of their relative importance. It is too early to suggest that this knowledge has been obtained, or even to deny that there are still important factors at work in relation 0 e problems of bone calcification, about which nothing is yet B 2