RICKETS 



373 



calcium by the body, as shown by the following table given by 

 Goldthwait et al. : l 



These authors also found a considerable retention of nitrogen 

 and sulphur, which they suggest may be retained in the new- 

 formed osteoid tissue ; magnesium is also retained, probably 

 being substituted for calcium in the bones. 



Castration of women with osteomalacia has been frequently, 

 but not always, followed by improvement or recovery, and 

 Neumann, and also Goldthwait, have found that in these cases 

 the calcium loss is replaced by a marked calcium retention after 

 the operation. What the relation of the ovaries to calcium 

 metabolism or to osteomalacia may be has not yet been ascer- 

 tained. Scharfe 2 and Bulins 3 both state that there are no 

 characteristic or constant structural alterations in the ovaries in 

 osteomalacia. McCrudden 4 found that the improvement in 

 calcium metabolism observed after castration may be but tem- 

 porary, and therefore believes that the primary cause of the 

 disease does not lie in the ovaries. 



RICKETS 5 



As with osteomalacia, chemical studies of the bones in rickets 

 have thrown little light upon the etiology or pathogenesis of 

 this condition. As the following table (taken from Vierordt 6 ) 

 shows, there is a marked deficiency in the proportion of inorganic 

 salts in the bones in rickets. The proportion of the different 

 salts, seems to be quite the same as in normal bone. 



1 Goldthwait, Painter, Osgood and McCrudden, Amer. Jour. PhysioL, 1905 

 (14), 389. 



2 Cent, f. Gyn., 1900 (24), 1216. 



3 Beitr. z. Geb. u. Gyn., vol. 1. 



4 Amer. Jour, of Physiol., 1906 (17), 211. 



5 Complete literature and full discussion by Pfaundler, Jahr. f. Kinderheilk., 

 1904 (60), 123 ; also see Albu and Neuberg, " Mineralstoffwechsel," Berlin, 

 1906, pp. 119-124. 



6 Nothnagel's System, vol. 7, part ii, p. 21. 



