Phosphorus and Calcium Deficiency Diseases as Two Ætiologically Distinct Entities

Abstract

Phosphorus Deficiency VITAMIN D deficiency in most species of animals leads to the development of rickets, and Kay's suggestion that the real cause of experimental rickets produced under conditions of vitamin D deficiency is the assimilation of insufficient dietary phosphorus is interesting. Certainly this opinion is strengthened by the observation that low vitamin D rickets is indistinguishable from that produced by phosphorus-deficient diets in the presence of abundant vitamin D. The disease is referred to as rickets in the immature animal and as osteomalacia in the adult.