CALCIUM, PHOSPHORUS AND NITROGEN RETENTION OF CHILDREN

Abstract

This investigation was planned to study the effect of acid-forming and base-forming diets on the metabolism of calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen in growing children. The importance of obtaining more knowledge on this subject is obvious. A series¹ of experiments on dogs had been instituted in this laboratory in the hope of establishing the effect of the metabolic reaction of the diet on the development of the bones and teeth. Synthetic diets of the Cowgill type were used, and young animals were reared from the time of weaning on similar diets made acid, neutral or basic by the addition of ammonium chloride or of sodium carbonate. Vitamin D was given or withheld in comparable cases in all of the groups. In this series of experiments, the results obtained by roentgenography, blood analyses, the calcium and phosphorus retention tests and the analyses of the bones and teeth indicated that a diet