The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-12-09
BY LOGAN cLENDENING. NJ. D.

liver oil 10 children one would
think that such deficiency disease
of children as ricketts, would have
disappeared.
But such is not the case. A group
Of Baltimore physicians, Drs.
Falls, Jackson, Eliot and Park, oy
making the most careful and final
tests on a group of children I'M
selected and examined consecu-
lively just as they came along, ire
spective of whether they were con-
sidered healthy or what they were
complaining Of, showed that &c per
cent of them had some degree Of
ricketts,. This was in recent years
when the knowledge about sun
shine and cod liver oil had, or
should have, sunk in.
True, in only about FIVE per cent
Of the cases was the rickety con-
dition sufficiently advanced to be
in itself menace to health. In %
per cent it was considered slight
and in Is per cent 1t was consid-
cred moderate in degree.
Danger Still Present
But the lesson is that the danger
Is always present, and is still pres
ent, and requires the continuation
during infancy and childhood of
the means Of prevention which are
proved and which we know work.
The physicians say:
ave doubt if slight degrees Of
ricketts,, such as we found in many
of our children, interfere with
health and development, but our
studies as a whole afford reason to
prolong administration of vitamin
D to the age limit of our study, the
fourteenth year, and especially in
dicats the necessity to suspect and
10 take the necessary measures to
guard against ricketts, in sick chill
Iren."
ricketts, In my young days in the
clinics was a prevalent and shock
Ing condition. When ! was in Lon
don in 1911, that city had the larg.
est and most instructive clinics on
children's diseases in the world. 1t
should have because it had the
largest, filthiest, most crowded and
most disgraceful slums in the
world-at least in any city that
was supposed to be part Of great
civilized Empire. In these clinics
the army Of children with ricketts,
was enough TO make strong man
put his head in his hands and cry.
Bent limbs, deformed limbs, bow
legs, knock knees, bullying skulls,
knobs all along the ribs, great
white, pathetic, staring eyes, or
sobbing, crying, painful, restless
babies.
All this from a disease that five
cents worth Of knowledge and ten
cents worth of cod liver oil would
prevent entirely.
Cod Liver Oil
There was some talk among the
professors as to whether cod liver
oil did any good. II used to be used,
but how did it act? That is what
they wanted to know and shrugged.
The teachings on vitamins
changed all that, and whatever
reservations l have on vitamins in
adults, there is no wavering in my
conviction that children need
plenty of vitamin D in the form Of
cod liver oil and vitamin c in the
form Of orange juice.
The old fashioned forms Of pro-
viding vitamin D for the proven
ton Of ricketts, are the best-cod
liver oil and sunshine. The baby
forms its own vitamin D out OF
sunshine. Primitive people and
those who live in a southern eli.
mate do not have much ricketts,
But we coop our children up in
houses and schools during the
brightest part of the winter day
and cover most Of their skin even
if they do go out.
Negroes have more ricketts, and
the severest cases because their
skin filters out the vitamin D pro-
ducing rays in sunshine. They need
more cod liver Gil than the fair
skinned children.
The seasonal incidence Of ricketts,
shows the influence Of sunshine
highest in February to May, after
the short dark days, lowest from
September TO November.