Common disorders and diseases of childhood / by George Frederic Still.

  • George Frederic Still
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Common disorders and diseases of childhood / by George Frederic Still. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    rickets, probably by interfering in some way \vit]i tJie assimila- tion of fat. And this brings me to another very serious fault which is com- mon to many of these trade preparations as given to the infant, namely, deficiency of fat. My own observations support the vicM's put forward by Dr. Cheadle, that the chief dietetic factor m the production of rickets is deficiency of fat-assimilation, a deficiency usually dependent upon deficiency of fat in the food, but occasionally—so it appears—due to defective assimilation of the fat which is present in the food. The whole process of fat-assimilation, and the part played in metabolism by fat taken as such m the food, is still very imperfectly known, but there is experimental evidence to show that the assimilation of one food-constituent is influenced by the proportion of other food constituents present in the diet, and there are clinical facts which suggest strongly that excess of carbo-hydrate, vvhether soluble or insoluble, interferes with the assimilation of fat. Whilst therefore deficiency of fat is in itself a serious fault, the deficiency probably becomes even more harmful when associated with excess of carbo-hydrate, and it seems likely that a proportion of at, which IS just sufficient to prevent disorder of nutrition so long as no excess of carbo-hydrate is present, may become insuffi- T^^X^ltT'^''^'''''^'^^^'^'^^— But what constitutes deficiency of fat ? Obviously no hard- Tav bf tlf '^'t ^ occurrence'^of riSs f^ti th! H ; ^-dication, in most cases, of deficiency of vl idi alords 7^1 ---Ptio- which has yet to be proved,Lt vmcii affoids, I think, the most useful working hypothesis- tl en It would appear that, at three months old LY^per cent 2 st'lrofir'r^' -^^^ nineUthrold and th oTp .1 ' ^^^^ which will protect from rickets and t at even these proportions are not sufficient for the puipose there is very little risk f T ''''''' ^^^nths, mixtures of t^en does res^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ -ake; which I shall expkin in V?nr ^ ^ ^^'^^^^ ^^P^^^n in a later chapter, that the proportion of