EFFECTS OF INANITION ON THE BODY AS A WHOLE 1 05 



restricted growth of herbivora, rat and swine on wheat or maize diets is not due 

 to protein deficiency alone, since the addition of certain salt mixtures resulted in 

 improved (though still subnormal) growth. McCollum and Davis ('15a) 

 found that the addition of salts to wheat diets gives great improvement, but 

 still less than half normal growth in rats, on account of other deficiencies. 

 Czerny and Finkelstein emphasize demineralization as a factor in athrepsia. 

 Grabley ('19) believes that mineral deficiency in the diet is a cause of imperfect 

 growth and nutrition in man. Only slightly subnormal growth in rats on low 

 salt diets was found by Evans and Bishop ('22), but H. G. Miller ('23) noted 

 marked retardation in the growth of young rats with dietary deficiency of 

 potassium. 



Babcock ('05) noted that cattle ordinarily obtain from their rations sufficient 

 sodium chloride for maintenance, but that during protracted lactation they 

 become progressively malnourished and will perish unless additional salt is 

 supplied. 



Among experiments resulting in malnutrition or growth failure on diets 

 considered deficient in calcium (in some cases also deficient in other essentials) 

 are those by Chossat ('42) on pigeons with calcium-poor wheat diet; by Weiske 

 ('74) on rabbits with "calcium-free barley;" by Hart and Steenbock ('19) 

 on pigs with maize and oats; by Elliot, Crichton and Orr ('22) on pigs with oat- 

 meal, etc.; by Russell and Morrison ('19) on cattle with oats; and by Haigh, 

 Moulton and Trowbridge ('20) on a calf with silage and maize diet. 



The maize diet fed by Evvard ('12) to pregnant sows, resulting in weak 

 and underweight offspring, was deficient in calcium as well as in protein. Dib- 

 belt ('10, 'n) maintained that there is normally a physiological "calcium 

 hunger" in newborn mammals (including human infants), the shortage of cal- 

 cium in the maternal milk (denied by Wieland '13) being supplemented by 

 absorption of calcium stored up in the bones of the offspring during the fetal 

 period. McCrudden ('13) concluded that human dwarfing may be due to 

 metabolic disturbance associated with calcium deficiency during the growth 

 period. The constitutional effects of calcium deficiency in children have been 

 reviewed recently by Stheeman ('21). This question will be discussed further 

 in connection with rachitis, and in the chapter on the skeletal system. Some 

 effects observed by Korenchevsky ('23) in the offspring of rats on diets deficient 

 in calcium or vitamin A will be mentioned later under the vitamins. 



Voit ('80) noted that in spite of the skeletal lesions the general growth of the 

 body is not inhibited in dogs on calcium-poor diet. Stoltzner ('09a) claimed that 

 this, as well as the continued growth of the body during experimental anemia 

 with iron-poor diets, is contrary to the "law of the minimum" (as advocated by 

 von Bunge). Similar results with diets deficient in phosphorus will be men- 

 tioned later. The calcium and phosphorus necessary for growth under these 

 conditions are provided by absorption from the supply already stored in the 

 skeleton. Osborne and Mendel ('18a), however, maintain that the "law of the 

 minimum" holds for all essential salts in the diet, failure of growth in the whole 

 body resulting where the limiting factors are deficiencies in the salts of chlorine, 

 sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus. 



