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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    answers are entirely satisfactory or not only further investigation can determine, but the present work does show that perfect bone- formation can be obtained even when 'large quantities of oatmeai are eaten if the rest of the diet be adequate. On the other hand the worst cases of malnutrition seen in human bemgs can be easily reproduced in animals by feeding them on foodstuffs, whic >u laro-ely in the national dietary along the lines described in this investigation. Apart from extreme malnutrition, however, it would appear not improbable that in this country, where the average diet is either deficient in or contains a border-line quantity of. anti¬ rachitic vitamin and calcium, and where sunshine is negligible, the ingestion of oatmeal during pregnancy and lactation of women, and in growing children, does much harm. A second challenge centres round the controversy of whole, meal bread and the nutritive properties of wheat embryo. A discussion of this question cannot be included here, for it would necessitate the study not only of the protein and vitamin content of wheat embryo, including vitamins A and B and the newly-discovered vitamin con¬ cerned with fertility and said by Evans and Bishop [47] to be abundant in this part of the grain, but also of the toxic pioduct ox products present in it. It may be well, however, to point out that in the experiments described above, where evidence of the lickets- producing action of wheat germ was given, as much as 20 to 40 per cent, of the cereal eaten was in the. form of ( commercial. wheat germ ’ and that the diets were deficient in anti-rachitic vitamin. Some of this product was bran, but, even so, the amount of germ eaten by the animals must have been much higher than. 1*5 pei cent, present in whole wheat. From the point of view of rickets and its allied problems the question of whole meal versus white bread is probably of but little practical importance. On the other hand the feeding of animals with large quantities of cereal offal, including germ, certainly can and does lead to detrimental results,, which can, however, be easily avoided by adding other foodstuffs ol the right nature. To those who ascribe special virtues to various grains because of their calcium and phosphorus content, the experimental results above described ought to bring a special message of caution. Miss Dorothea Selby, B.Sc., and Miss Ella Surie, B.Sc., have had control of the actual feeding experiments at different times. I wish to express my indebtedness to both of them for carrying out what is a most exacting labour. The Field Laboratory, where the foregoing experimental work was done, was specially erected by the University of Sheffield for this purpose. The expenses of this investigation, as of the earlier work carried out by me on rickets, were provided by the Medical Research Council. 1 wish to express my thanks to both of these bodies.