RICKETS 327 



children, whose mothers apparently had sufficient vitamine A in the 

 diet. All of these cases were cured with cod-liver oil. Holt, 

 Courtney and Fales (1132) kept a child for 5 weeks on vegetable 

 fat, as the sole fat constituent (apparently free from vitamine 

 A). The child stopped growing but remained in good general 

 condition. Two children developed styes and two others, facial 

 eczema, which disappeared when milk fat was given, v. Groer 

 (1133) conducted an experiment with two children, who grew almost 

 normally during the first half of the first year on a fat-free diet. 

 The diet consisted of skim-milk, containing only 0.01 per cent fat, 

 and cane sugar; later, oatmeal was added. Here we see again the 

 demonstration that under certain conditions children may thrive 

 with very little A-vitamine. 



Hess (I.e. 636), on the other hand, could observe rickets in about 

 75 per cent of the children on a diet composed of "Eiweiss" milk 

 supplemented with cream, dextrin, malt-soup and orange juice. He 

 admitted, however, that this diet was also poor in vitamine B. 



Among the opponents of the vitamine theory cf rickets (lack of 

 vitamine A), we find at first McCollum, Simmonds and Parsons 

 (1134), on the basis of their rat experiments, and also Robb (1135). 

 The latter concluded, from guinea pig experiments, that vitamine C 

 affects the mineral metabolism, so that the assumption of the existence 

 of a special antirachitic vitamine does not appear to be necessary. 

 Later, McCollum and co-workers (1135a), Sherman and Pappenheimer 

 (I.e. 1112b and c) and Hess, McCann and Pappenheimer (1135b) 

 conducted some preliminary experiments with rats on diets deficient 

 in vitamine A and in other respects, and produced a rickets-like 

 condition suggestive of a causative relationship of this condition to 

 rickets in man. In 1915, we noted in rats a disease similar to 

 rickets; a scoliosis-like curvature of the spine with rosary develops 

 sometimes in these animals on diets very rich in fat and containing 

 also cod liver oil (I.e. 331 and p. 339). McCollum and his co-workers 

 fed rats on artificial food mixtures and found that a diet poor in 

 vitamine A and phosphorus, but rich in calcium, led to rickets. 

 A simultaneous addition of cod liver oil (but not butter) made the 

 diet satisfactory for the animals. They found that cod liver oil 

 specifically influenced the bone development; the deposition of 

 calcium in the bones could be readily seen in the X-ray in from two 

 to eight days. 



