622 X. VITAMINS D 



coining the name of the deficiency in their term, rachitisme. The most im- 

 portant development in the understanding of rickets is to be attributed to 

 the two English doctors, Glisson and Whistler, who lived in the seventeenth 

 century.^ Later reviews and monographs on this deficiency condition are 

 those of Orgler^ (1912), Korenchevsky* (1922), Gyorgy^ (1929), Hess^ 

 (1929), and that of the Medical Research CounciP (1932). 



As in the case of vitamin A, the deficiency s^nidrome resulting from the 

 absence of vitamin D in the diet was recognized long before the presence of 

 the vitamin itself was understood. Trousseau,^ as early as 1873, recom- 

 mended cod-liver oil for the treatment of rickets. Hopkins^ '^^ and Funk" 

 were the first to postulate, many years later, that rickets was caused by the 

 absence of an "accessory foodstuff" in the diet. 



The understanding of the nature of the curative agent in cod-liver oil 

 against rickets began to emerge soon after Mellanby^^^^* produced rickets 

 in dogs, and was able to alleviate the condition by the use of certain animal 

 fats. This investigator was of the opinion that the curative factor was 

 "fat-soluble A," or that its distribution was similar to that of the latter 

 principle. ^-'^^ Further investigation of the nature of the antirachitic prin- 

 ciple was made possible by the experimental production of rickets in rats. 

 This development was based upon the pioneer studies of Sherman and 

 Pappenheimer,^^'^^ as well as upon the brilliant research of the McCollum 



3 A. Orgler, Ergeb. inn. Med. Kinderheilk., 8, 142-182 (1012). 



* V. Korenchevsky, The Aetiology and Pathology of Rickets from an Experimental 

 Point of View, Med. Research Council (Brit.), Spec. Rept. Ser. No. 71, (1922); Brit. Med. 

 J., 1921, 2, 547-550; New York Med. J., 115, 612-614 (1922). 



^ P. Gyorg}'^, Die Behandlung und Verhiitung der Rachitis und Tetanic, Springer, Ber- 

 lin, 1929; cited bv R. Nicolaysen and N. Eeg-Larsen, Vitamins and Hormones, 11, 29- 

 60 (1953), p. 30; ^Ergeh. inn. Med. Kinderheilk., 36, 752-966 (1929). 



^ A. Hess, Rickets, Including Osteomalacia and Tetany, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia 

 (1929). 



^ Anonymous, Vitamins: A Survey of Present Knowledge, Med. Research Council 

 (Brit.), Spec. Rept. Ser. No. 167, (1932), pp. 48-49. 



8 A. Trousseau, Lectures on Clinical Medicine, Blakiston, 1873 (translated by J. R. 

 Cormack and P. V. Bazire from the 3rd ed. of Clinique medicale de V Hotel Dieu de Paris, 

 Balliere, Paris, 1898). 



3 F. G. Hopkins, Analyst, 31, 385-404 (1906). 



i» F. G. Hopkins, J. Physiol, U, 425-460 (1912). 



^^ C. Funk, Die Vitamine, Ihre Bedeutung fiir die Physiologic und Pathologic, mil be- 

 sonderer Beriicksichtigung der Avitaminosen, J. F. Bergmann, Wiesbaden, 1914, 201 pp. 



12 E. Mellanby, /. Physiol, 52, liii-liv (1919). 



" E. Mellanby, Lancet, 196, I, 407-412 (1919). 



1* E. Mellanby, Experimental Rickets, Med. Research Council {Brit.), Spec. Rept. Ser. 

 No. 61 (1921); cited bv C. E. Bills, in H. Sebrell and R. S. Harris, The Vitamins, Vol. 

 II, 132-223 (1954), p. i33; Lancet, 1920, I, 604. 



16 H. C. Sherman and A. M. Pappenheimer, Proc. Soc. Exptl Biol. Med., 18, 193-197 

 (1921). 



i« H. C. Sherman and A. M. Pappenheimer, /. Exptl Med., 34, 189-198 (1921). 



