G. Dclgado Palacios 85 



gested. It is also impossible to say, at present, whether the calcium 

 that is normally absorbed from ingested food is excreted exclusively 

 by the intestinal mucous membrane or whether a portion of it is 

 also eliminated in the urine. Many reasons, and the results of nu- 

 merous experiments which cannot be explained here, are entirely 

 favorable to the first of these two possibilities. 



Calcariuria and lipaciduria, which are very commonly observed 

 in diabetes and other maladies, may be explained by the " retrograde 

 circulation of calcium." This view, if verified by experiment, 

 would modify very profoundly our conception of the nature of these 

 diseases, which are considered today, perhaps too exclusively, " nu- 

 tritional " disturbances. 



The part which the calcium of " retrograde absorption " plays in 

 the pathogeny of arteriosclerosis is a very important matter for con- 

 sideration. Those who may be interested in this phase of the sub- 

 ject will find a description of an extensive study of it, in the book 

 referred to above (13). 



[The author of this paper is now in the United States and may be 

 addressed in care of the Biochemical Bulletin, Ed.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1. LoEPER and Bechamp: Compt. rend. de la soc. de bioL, 23 Juillet, 



1910. 



2. Albu and Neuberg: Physiologie und Pathologie des Mineral- 



stoffwechsels, Berlin, 1906, p. 116. 



3. V. NooRDEN and Belgrad: Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1894, No. 10. 



4. Blauberg: Zeitschr. f. BioL, 1900, xxii, p. 36. 



5. MÜLLER : Virchoufs Archiv, 1893, cxxxi ; Supplementheft, pp. 2, 52. 



6. Tigerstedt: Skand. Archiv f. PhysioL, 1904, xvi, p. 67. 



7. Renvall: Ibid., p. 94. 



8. Salomon and Wallace: Medizin. Klinik, 1909, No. 16. 



9. Voit: Zeitschr. f. BioL, 1892, xxix, p. 325. 



IG. Salkowski: Virchov/s Archiv, 1871, liii, p. 209. 



11. Ury : Deutsche med. Wochenschr., 1901, No. 41. 



12. Soetbeer: Jahr. f. Kinderheilk., 1902, p. i. 



13. Palacios: Chimie pathologique tropicale de la region Atiantique, 



