770 



FRANCIS H. McCRUDDEN 



' TABLE 27 



METABOLISM DURING ACTIVE STAGE OF OSTEOMALACIA (8 DATS) 



TABLE 28 



METABOLISM DURING STAGE OF BEGINNING IMPROVEMENT IN OSTEOMALACIA 



The figures shown in Table 27 give the results obtained during the 

 active stage of the disease. There is a loss of calcium and a retention of 

 magnesium and sulphur. 



The figures shown in Table 28 give the results obtained in a metabolism 

 observation made just as clinical improvement began. Coincident with 

 the clinical improvement was a retention of calcium. But retention of 

 large quantities of sulphur still persists for a time after improvement in 

 the calcium metabolism has begun. 



The figures shown in Table 29 give the results obtained just at the 

 beginning of a relapse. The negative calcium balance is well marked. 

 But magnesium retention had not yet begun, and the sulphur retention 

 had scarcely begun. 



Still better examples of "overproduction" are those cases of osteo- 

 malacia in which the flux of calcium is started by a need of calcium within 

 the body. Such a case is the one described by McCrudden, the clinical 

 history of which is summarized earlier in this chapter. In that case, the 

 flux of calcium seems to have been started by the growth of bony tumors. 

 The loss of calcium was eventually greater than the need, and led eventu- 

 ally to a negative calcium balance. Berger(a) (&) refers to two cases 



