556 TISSUES OF THE CONNECTIVE SUBSTANCE. 



ERWIN VOIT, ARON and SEBAUER and others 1 produced, by lack of 

 lime-salts, a change similar to rachitis. In full-grown animals the 

 bones were changed after a long time because of the lack of lime-salts 

 in the food, but did not become soft, only thinner (osteoporosis). The 

 attempts to remove the lime-salts from the bones by the addition of 

 lactic acid to the food have led to no positive results (HEITZMANN, 

 HEISS, BAGiNSKY 2 ). WEISKE, on the contrary, has shown, by admin- 

 istering dilute sulphuric acid or monosodium phosphate with the food 

 (presupposing that the food gave no alkaline ash) to sheep and rab- 

 bits, that the quantity of mineral bodies in the bones might be dimin- 

 ished. On feeding continuously for a long time with a food which yielded 

 an acid ash (cereal grains), WEISKE observed a diminution in the min- 

 eral substances of the bones in full-grown herbivora. 3 A few investi- 

 gators are of the opinion that in rachitis, as in osteomalacia, in which 

 disease the calcium content of the bones is also diminished, a solution 

 of the lime-salts by means of lactic acid takes place. This was sug- 

 gested by the fact that O. WEBER and C. SCHMIDT 4 found lactic acid 

 in the cyst-like, altered bony substance in osteomalacia. 



Well-known investigators have disputed the possibility of the lime- 

 salts being washed from the bones in osteomalacia by means of lactic 

 acid. They have given special prominence to the fact that the lime- 

 salts held in solution by the lactic acid must be deposited on neutraliza- 

 tion of the acid by the alkaline blood. This objection is not very impor- 

 tant, as the alkaline blood-serum has the property to a high degree of 

 holding earthy phosphates in solution, which fact has been recently 

 shown by HOFMEISTER. The investigations of LEVY contradict the 

 claim as to the solution of the lime-salts by lactic acid in osteomalacia. 

 He found that the normal relation 6PO4:10Ca is retained in all parts 

 of the bones in osteomalacia, which would not be the case if the bone- 

 earths were dissolved by an acid. The decrease in phosphate occurs in 

 the same quantitative relation as the carbonate, and according to LEVY, 

 in osteomalacia the exhaustion of the bone takes place by a decalcifica- 

 tion in which one molecule of phosphate-carbonate after the other is 

 removed. This does not agree with the findings of MCCRUDDEN 5 who 



1 Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 16; Aron and Sebauer, Bioch. Zeitschr., 8; A. Baginsky, 

 Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1881. 



2 Heitzmann, Maly's Jahresber., 3, 229; Heiss, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 12; Baginsky, 

 Virchow's Arch., 87. 



3 See Maly's Jahresber., 22; also Weiske, Zeitschr, f. physiol. Chem., 20, and 

 Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 31. 



4 Cited from v. Gorup-Besanez, Lehrb. de. physiol. Chem., 4. Aufl. 



6 Hofmeister, Ergebn. d. Physiol. 10; Levy. Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. 19; McCrud- 

 den, Journ. of biol. Chem., 7. 



