44 



Scientific Proceedings (117). 



cures by means of the quartz lamp in premature infants suffering 

 from rickets. In July, 1920, Riedel 1 further confirmed Huld- 

 schinsky's findings in a series of one hundred children suffering from 

 rickets. In June, 192 1, Hess 2 confirmed Huldschinsky's findings 

 in a series of six cases. 



The favorable influence of sunlight in rickets has been recog- 

 nized by some students of the disease for a long time, notably by 

 Palm 3 (1890), and experimental evidence of its beneficial effect 

 on mineral metabolism in the puppy has been furnished by Rac- 

 zynsky 4 in 1912. Huldschinsky made use of sunlight together 

 with the ultraviolet ray in two cases of his series and Riedel relied 

 on treatment with sunlight in some of his cases, supplementing 

 with the quartz lamp ray only on sunless days. Hess 5 was the 

 first, so far as we are aware, to demonstrate, by means of the 

 radiograph, that sunlight alone exerts the same curative action 

 as the ultraviolet ray. All the investigations which have been 

 made up to the present time in regard to the curative effects of 

 both the ultraviolet ray and sunlight in rickets have been made on 

 human subjects of the disease and all the evidence has been fur- 

 nished by means of the radiograph. In order to satisfy ourselves 

 concerning the action of light in rickets as well as actually to see 

 the changes produced in the bones we performed the following 

 experiments. 



Eighteen rats about six weeks old and weighing between forty 

 and fifty grams were placed on diet 3,143 which, as previous ex- 

 perience 6 has shown, produces rickets comparable in every re- 

 spect to the rickets manifesting itself in human beings. The ration 

 has the following composition : 



Wheat 33-o% 



Maize 33-o 



Gelatin I5-0 



Wheat gluten 150 



NaCl 1.0 



CaCOi 3-o 



Riedel, G., Munchen. med. Wchnschr., 1920, lxvii, 838. 

 2 Hess, A. E., and Unger, L. J., Am. J. Dis. Child., 1921, xxii, 186. 

 'Palm, T. A., The Practitioner, 1890, xlv, 270-279 and 321-342. 

 4 Raczynski, J., Com.pt. rend, de L' Association Internationale De Pediatric, Paris, 

 1913. P. 308. 



•Hess, A. F., and Unger, L. J., J. A. M. A., 1921, lxxvii, 39. 

 « McCollum, E. V., Simmonds, Nina, Shipley, P. G., and Park, E. A. J. Biol. 

 Chem., 1921, xlvii, 507. 



