NEW SECRET OF HEALTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20271, 2 December 1927, Page 6

NEW SECRET OF HEALTH.

CAUSE OF DEFICIENCY DISEASE- ' Veterinary work in South Africa, ac- . cording to the British Medical Journal, has made a discovery of which the “ fundamental importance Is very great, as great probably'as the discovery of vitamins a few years ago." There has been a tendency, the journal points out, to consider that deficiency, diseases, are almost synonymous with the conditions caused _ by lack of vitamins. Experiment has shown that this is too narrow a view to ■ Disease, it has been found, may be due. to lack of certain inorganic salts, such as’, salts of Iron, iodine, manganese, calcium, phosphorus, and so on, minute quantities, of which are essential for the well-beiijg of all aiiimal organisms. Thus tracts of valuable grazing #land in New. Zealand are useless owing to the lack of Iron in the soil. While cases of the sort can be seen all over the world, a most striking example’ has been investigated in the Union of South Africa by Sir Arnold Theiler and his colleagues at Onderstopoort Veterinary Research Institute. Two serioul conditions of cattle known ai “ lamllekte and “ Styfsiekte " had long puzzled the local authorities. The latter condition is a pure deficiency disease, due to lack of phosphorus. Lamsiekte le mote complicated, being a fatal disease showing symptoms of paralysis. . The first clue to U« causation was given when Theiler in 1916 saw cattle delibe- , rately eating skeletal carcass debris. Experimental feeding on the tame debris reproduced the disease, which was found to be due to a specific badUue. growing, in the absence of air, Parabotulinus - bovis, closely related to the well-known Bacillus botulinns, the cause of botuliam. The next step in the inquiry was to determine the cause of the depraved appetite, which was found to be due to the phosphorus-deficient vegetation causing a . phosphorus starvation in the cattle. Both diseases can be cured by the addition to the food of substances —such as bonemeal—rich in phosphorus, a proceeding which was found not only to cause quickened growth in young animals, but a considerable increase in the milk production in adults.