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HENRY A. MATTILL AND HELEN I. MATTILL 



and tissues rich in nuclear material must play an important part in the 

 growth of the early years." Insufficient P in the food during growth re- 

 sults in serious under development of the bones (Schmorl; Masslow(6)). 

 The partition of the excreted P between urine and feces depends 

 largely on the nature of the diet. A meat diet gives rise to high urinary 

 P and a vegetable diet to a large excretion through the intestine. The 

 urinary excretion is normally 2-2.5 g. P 2 O 5 as primary and secondary 

 phosphates of the alkali and alkaline earth metals. Intestinal excretion 

 of Ca and P 2 O 5 usually run parallel. Phosphaturia, which is character- 

 ized by a cloudy urine or one which becomes cloudy on heating, is not al- 

 ways due to increased amounts of phosphates in the urine, but frequently 

 to their insolubility in an alkaline urine, and may result from a vege- 

 table diet or an ingestion of quantities of alkali or following the increased 

 alkalinity (so-called) of the blood during digestion or loss of the acid 

 stomach juices by vomiting or by removal with stomach pump. Patho- 

 logical phosphaturia follows an increased alkalinity of the blood as a re- 

 sult of disease, or of increased elimination of P and Ca by way of the kid- 

 neys because of some interference with the excretory functions of the 

 intestinal membranes (Soetbeer). P is present in the blood in three forms 

 lipoid, phosphorus, inorganic phosphates and a form soluble in acids but 

 not precipitated by the ordinary phosphate reagents. "Acid soluble P" 

 includes the latter two and is 2-4.5 mg. P (6.4-14 mg. H 3 PO 4 ) per 100 

 cc. plasma (Feigl(a) ; Greenwald(/)) of which 1-3.5 mg. P (3.2-12 mg. 

 H 3 PO 4 ) is in the form of inorganic phosphates (Marriott and Haessler; 

 Denis and Minot(^) in normal individuals. The phosphorus concentra- 

 tion in corpuscles is about 7 times as great as in plasma and shows less 

 individual variations (Bloor ; Porte). As a result of many analyses using 

 his nephlelometric method Bloor (g) gives the following table of average 

 P distribution in the blood of normal men and women : 



Iron 



Iron occupies a unique position among the mineral constituents of 

 the body since its presence in hemoglobin endows the blood with oxygen- 

 carrying capacity. The blood of a man is said to contain about three 

 grams of iron. The liver and spleen contain perhaps 0.02 per cent of their 



