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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    rachitic changes to a varying extent according to the amount of cereal eaten and the rate of growth of the puppy. Calcium phosphate also had a beneficial effect under ohe same conditions but to a less degree. In other experiments it was found that calcium acid phosphate in the diet also improved bone-calcification. The anti-rachitic effect of these salts is not, however, sufficiently potent under these conditions to lead to the belief that the calcium- phosphorus content of cereals holds the secret of their rickets- producing action. (ii) The Part Played by Other Mineral Constituents of Cereals and the Acid-Base Balance. While attention has been so far confined in this discussion to a consideration of the part played by the calcium and phosphorus in cereals, the other mineral elements must receive attention, for it has been urged that they also are of importance in this con¬ nexion. The suggestion has been made that foodstuffs tend to cause bone lesions in horses when they contain a relative excess of potassium to sodium. It has also been observed that, not only is the calcium in the various grains and their derivatives small, but that the ratios of magnesium to calcium and potassium to sodium are high. From their experience of rickets in pigs, Elliot, Crichton, and Orr [35] considered that the main cause of this disease was abnor¬ mality in the salt content of the food. They found that the addition of calcium carbonate and sodium hydroxide to the diet of oatmeal, white bread, cod-muscle, swede turnip, produced great improvement in nutrition, and prevented rickets. The action of fat-soluble vitamin they considered of small importance in the aetiology of rickets in pigs. It may be said, however, that Zilva, Golding, and Drummond [34] have produced rickets in pigs on diets containing abundant calcium and phosphorus and in not unbalanced proportions when the fat-soluble vitamin was deficient. The frequency with which the cause of rickets has been ascribed to an ‘ acidosis5 suggests that the rickets-producing action of cereals might be related to the acid-base balance of their total mineral constituents. This point of view is also of interest in view of the beneficial action of the alkaline mixture (calcium carbonate and sodium hydroxide) used by Elliot, Crichton, and Orr in their work on rickets in pigs. On the other hand, in direct opposition to the ‘acidosis’ hypothesis, it has recently been stated by Jones, James, and Smith 36] that rickets can be produced in puppies when eating a complete diet, if its potential alkalinity is raised by the addition of potassium phosphate, and that this action of the diet can be prevented by adding to it hydrochloric acid. It has also been seen above that calcium carbonate has a stronger anti-rachitic effect than calcium phosphate in puppies under certain conditions of diet, and it may be that this superiority is in part due to the acid-neutralizing effect of the carbonate. While these facts suggest the importance of the acid- base balance of the ashed mineral constituents of the diet so far