20 



Scientific Proceedings (125) 



7 (1967) 



Hie acid base ratio of the diet in rickets production. 

 By T. F. ZUCKER, WM. C. JOHNSON and MARION BARNETT 



[From the Laboratory of the Department of Pathology, College 

 of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City] 



The results of the work on experimental rickets in rats have 

 shown that rickets can be produced by diets which are poor in 

 phosphorus and rich in calcium or diets which are poor in calcium 

 and rich in phosphorus. A condition produced in that manner 

 can be prevented or restored to normal by exposing the animals 

 to a sufficient amount of light of certain wave lengths or by ad- 

 ministering cod liver oil which contains a substance that affects 

 the calcium and phosphorus metabolism. There is no evidence 

 at present that this substance regularly occurs in natural food- 

 stuffs, and, therefore, there seems no valid reason to put it into 

 the class of vitamins. Until it has been shown that the curative 

 agent in cod liver oil is a component of normal foods, we cannot 

 assume that rickets is due to a vitamin deficiency. This, then, 

 leaves us, in spite of the accumulated data on experimental rickets 

 in animals, without any definite information as to the physiolog- 

 ical changes which lead to rickets in children since children will 

 develop rickets on diets well balanced with regard to calcium and 

 phosphorus. It is important, therefore, to learn more concerning 

 other factors which influence rickets-production, in order to gain 

 an understanding of the possible causes of human rickets when 

 it is produced under conditions where dietary factors cannot be 

 held responsible. We believe that we have obtained evidence of 

 a factor not taken into consideration in the recent work on ex- 

 perimental rickets. Ernst Schloss 1 in one of his monographic 

 papers on rickets has called attention to the fact that contrary to 

 the hypothesis held at one time, according to which rickets is due 

 to an acidosis, it is found that rickets seems to develop more fre- 

 quently under conditions rather the opposite of an acidosis. 

 There are also certain indications that during cure of rickets a 

 relative acidosis develops. Schloss, however, had no very def- 



l Schloss, Ernst, Ergebn. inn. Med. u. Kinderh., 1917, xv, 95. 



