Abstract
All the evidence as to the preventive and curative effects in the rickets of human beings of the radiations from the mercury vapor quartz lamp has been furnished by the X-ray. In order to determine the protective action of these radiations in experimental rickets in rats and also to examine the bones themselves we performed the following experiments.
Nineteen rats, mostly mixed black and white and about seven weeks old, were placed on diet 3143 which, as previous experience has shown, produces rickets comparable in every respect to the rickets manifesting itself in human beings.
Nine rats were kept as control animals under ordinary laboratory conditions in a room completely screened with windows of ordinary glass (cage “R” animals). Ten rats were exposed to the radiation from a Hanovia mercury vapor quartz lamp (Alpine type) (cage “U-V” animals). One animal (16Y) in cage “R” was found paralyzed thirty-eight days after being placed on diet (age about eighty-eight days) and was killed. We have previously pointed out that the development of paralysis of the posterior extremities not infrequently occurs in rats fed on diet 3143. Another animal (26Y) was killed fifty-eight days after being placed on the diet (age about one hundred and eight days); and the other seven animals were killed sixty-four days after being placed on the diet (age about one hundred and fourteen days). The animals in cage “U-V” (rayed animals) were exposed to the radiations at a distance of three feet for varying periods of time daily for sixty-four days and were then killed.
The rayed animals as contrasted with the control animals showed marked physical vigor as evidenced by growth, activity, good appetite, thick smooth coats and reproductive power.
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