Sunlight and Rachitic Children 



87 



after the intravenous injection of 5 mg. per kilo. A simplified 

 method of determining the amount of dye in the plasma has been 

 devised: a series of standards for comparison is prepared by 

 adding varying amounts of the dye to plasma prior to the in- 

 jection. 



The test was performed upon ten normal individuals and ten 

 control cases of extra hepatic disease. Seventeen cases of liver 

 disease of various types were tested and results fully bore out 

 experimental findings; striking degrees of retention of the dye 

 in the blood were present where known damage to the liver 

 existed. Results are quantitative, they have harmonized with 

 the clinical evidence of the extent of liver damage and it is be- 

 lieved that they give an index of the functional capacity of the 

 entire liver. 



43 (2003) 



The effect of sunlight upon the concentration of calcium and of 

 inorganic phosphorus of the serum of rachitic children. 



By BENJAMIN KRAMER and FRANK H. BOONE. 



[From the Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, Maryland.] 



Recent studies have shown that the bone lesions of rickets 

 may be healed by a variety of measures (administration of a 

 proper diet, or of cod liver oil, radiation with mercury vapor 

 quartz lamp, carbon arc lamp, cadmium open spark, etc.) Hess 

 and Unger 1 claim to have obtained a similar result by exposing 

 children suffering with rickets to direct sunlight. 



Howland and Kramer 2 have demonstrated that with active 

 rickets, unassociated with tetany, there occurs regularly a 

 marked reduction of the concentration of inorganic phosphorus 

 in the serum. In some instances there was also a moderate re- 

 duction of the calcium concentration. With active rickets the 

 reduction is such that when the concentration of calcium ex- 

 pressed in mg. per 100 c.c. of serum is multiplied by that of 

 inorganic phosphorus similarly expressed, the product does not 



1 Hess, A. F., and Unger, L. J., Journal of A. M. A., 1921, lxxvii, 39. 



2 Howland, John and Kramer, Benjamin, Transactions of the American 

 Pediatric Society, 1922, xxxiv, 204. 



