CALCIUM AND PHOSPHORUS METABOLISM IN ARTIFICIALLY FED INFANTS: I. INFLUENCE OF COD LIVER OIL AND IRRADIATED MILK

Until recently, interest in rickets has been concerned more especially with the rôle of calcium, other elements being considered of secondary importance in the metabolic disturbance. Schabad,1 however, early called attention to the phosphoric acid imbalance, believing that it was a more significant factor than the calcium deficiency. In a comparative study of the relation of the phosphorus of the urine and feces of normal and rachitic infants, he observed that there was a marked increase in the phosphorus of the feces in both breast-fed and artificially fed infants affected by rickets, and a corresponding decrease in the elimination through the kidneys. The normal breast-fed infants under his observation excreted 80 per cent of the ingested phosphorus through the kidney and 19 per cent through the tract; while in his normal infants who were artificially fed, 65 per cent of the ingested phosphorus was eliminated in the urine and