[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.
- Cumberland County Council
- Date:
- 1929
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![(h) Calcium. It has long been suspected by various observers that oalciuni (leficiency may be an important contributory l ause both to the onset of pulmonary tuberculosis and to the development of the disease. ()rr (of the Eowett Institute) in a pa|)er'’ read before the British Association at Southampton in 1925 pointed out that experiments at the llowett Institute had shown that mortality from certain infections is much higher in animals fed on a diet ill-balanced or deficient in mineral matter. He went on to say : “ It has been suggested that deficiency of calcium may be a causative factor in produc- ing a lowered resistance to tuberculosis. If this is correct it is of great economic importance on account of the incidence of tuberculosis in dairy cows. It is known that, at the height of lactation, there is usually a loss of calcium from the body. This is greater the higher the yield of milk, and tuberculosis seems to be more liable to occur in heavy-milking cows.” Prest, Medical Superintendent of the Ayrshire Sanatorium, has shownS some good results in the treat- ment of both pulmonary and surgical tuberculosis by the subcutaneous use of colloid of calcium. In the County of Cumberland some equally good results have been obtained in cases of non-pulmonary tuberculosis by the use of calcium in various forms, the best results being obtained by the injection of colloid calcium intramuscularh. An American observers examining the blood calcium content in a large series of cases found that “ the highest calcium figures were obtained in apparently arrested cases of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.” The discussion on the therapeutic use of calcium before the British Medical Association at Edinburgh in 1927 added little or nothing to the knowledge of the use of calcium therapy in tuberculosis. One or two interest- ing jioints emerged from other aspects. Eraser (Professor E. 11.) said : 10 “ The constancy in the calcium content of the blood serum in health suggests that it plays an important ])art in the life of the individual and the relation of the body to its environment.”](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29132903_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
