On calcium metabolism

Abstract

Certain lines of enquiry in biological chemistry have already yielded results such that a coherent and plausible account can be given of the phenomena involved and their relationships, though doubtless in no case can the final story be told. At the present time, however, our knowledge of calcium, metabolism is fragmentary - we are still far from being able to correlate the various experimental results and employ them in the weaving of a single harmonious hypothesis; the gaps are too great, and much of what passes for knowledge is uncertain. As a result of this almost chaotic array of contradictory statements deranged calcium metabolism has been suggested as the etiological factor in the most diverse conditions, and this has in turn led to much misdirected and futile therapeutic endeavour. The object of this thesis is to put forward the results which have been obtained by the author in his investigations into several problems of calcium metabolism, to correlate these with the results obtained by previous workers, and to present a short critical review of the more important and suggestive papers on this subject as it is understood to-day.