8 4 



Scientific Proceedings (28). 



47 (303) 



On the relation of calcium metabolism to tetany and the cure 

 of tetany by administration of calcium. 



By W. G. MACCALLUM and CARL VOEGTLIN. 



\_From the Hunterian Laboratory , Johns Hopkins University^ 



Various researches, especially those of Jacques Loeb and J. 

 B. MacCallum indicated a relationship between muscular twitch- 

 ing and the impoverishment of the tissues with respect to calcium. 

 An endeavor was therefore made to determine whether the tetany 

 produced by parathyroidectomy depended upon this condition. It 

 was found that when the tetany was well developed it could be 

 made to cease very rapidly by the intravenous or subcutaneous 

 injection of a considerable dose of any soluble calcium salt, al- 

 though the salts of other elements such as sodium or potassium 

 had no such effect, but rather accentuated the symptoms. The 

 analysis of the blood of dogs killed during tetany shows a cal- 

 cium content about half that of the normal control dog and simi- 

 larly the brain of the dog killed in tetany is poor in calcium as 

 compared with that of the control dog, containing in fact only 

 about half the normal amount. As far as the analyses are finished 

 it appears that the output of calcium in the urine increases with 

 the development of tetany. 



From this it seems probable that the parathyroid glands ex- 

 ercise a control over the calcium metabolism so that when they 

 are destroyed these processes do not go on normally but the tis- 

 sues lose calcium and in this impoverished state become irritable, 

 quiescence being restored by the reintroduction of considerable 

 amounts of a soluble calcium salt. 



It seems probable that the administration of calcium by injec- 

 tion or by the mouth may be useful in tiding over the severe symp- 

 toms in cases of tetany developing spontaneously or as the result 

 of operation. 



