INFLUENCE OF NUTRITION ON POISONS 387 



know how correct this assumption may be. The significance of 

 vitamines in certain orthopedic cases is based on a better foundation. 

 Schodel and Naumwerk (I.e. 998) believed that scurvy predisposes 

 to coxa vara and other conditions, diagnosed as congenital hip- 

 joint dislocation. Hess (I.e. 1022) saw, in one case of scurvy, a bone 

 affection similar to coxa vara. During the war, Hammer (1542) 

 observed that some fractures healed with great difficulty, a dis- 

 turbance in metabolism being justifiably suspected. Peckam (1543) 

 believed that some deformities like scoliosis, bow-legs, flat feet, 

 etc., are of dietetic origin. He thought that most orthopedists are 

 so occupied with the purely orthopedic aspect of their cases that 

 they pay absolutely no attention to the practical important etio- 

 logical factors. The presumptions of Peckam are certainly partly 

 justified because of the relationship between rickets and bone 

 formation. 



We shall now discuss two diseases which are related more to a 

 luxury consumption than to an insufficient dietary, namely, diabetes 

 and cancer. 



DIABETES 



We see already the justification for the conception that this disease 

 is related to luxury consumption in the papers on the effect of the war 

 diet. Magnus-Levy (1544) observed that during the war, there was 

 a marked decrease in the number of diabetes cases, whereas, before 

 the war, they had been constantly increasing. Gerhardt (1545) had 

 the same experience in Wiirzburg. Two phases of the diabetes 

 question interest us here. First, the possibility of an antidiabetic 

 substance of a vitamine type in the food, and second, the danger of 

 an altogether rigorous dietary restriction in the usual therapy. The 

 first possibility was justified, to a certain extent, for a specific action 

 on diabetes was ascribed to v. Noorden's oatmeal cure. Even 

 Magnus-Levy (1546) tried to concentrate this hypothetical substance 

 by alcoholic extraction, but without success. Boruttau's (1547) 

 experiments resulted differently. He found that pancreas extracts, 

 yeast and yeast extracts inhibit the cleavage of glycogen in the iso- 

 lated heart, while extracts from the peripheral oat layers decreases the 

 sugar elimination in diabetic dogs and in man. Similar results were 

 obtained by Rose (1548) with one of the substances isolated from the 

 pancreas. The composition of the diet, especially its carbohydrates, 



