, other scientists noted that rickets also afflicted the children of more prosperous parents. It wasn't until some years after World War I that various studies showed that "rickets resulted from specific dietary or environmental deprivations, or a combination of the two (Gibbs 729-732)." In 1919, the German pediatrician, Kurt Huldschinsky, demonstrated the therapeutic effects of light from a mercury-vapor quartz lamp on 4 children with advanced disease. The researcher concluded that the skin irradiation somehow released a healing chemical into the bloodstream. Then, 2 years after the German scientist's observations, Hess & Unger (1921) described how 7 rachitic children exposed to sunlight on the roof of a New York City hospital showed marked improvement of their rickets upon x-ray examination (Holick 1-22).
Additionally, Mellanby (1919) found that rickets could be produced in dogs by feeding them oatmeal. Once an animal model was discovered for the disease, it was soon discovered that adding cod-liver to animals' diets could provide a cure. Such observations were also found to agree with common folklore practices on the coast lines of the British Isles and the Scandinavian countries. These populations had long used fish liver oils for rickets prevention (Holick 1-22).
Rickets and an associated disorder, osteomalacia, result from systemic disease. The gross, histologic, and radiologic abnormalities associated with both rickets and osteomalacia can be caused by a number of different disorders. Indeed, over 50 known diseases may present with rickets, osteomalacia, or both. For the most part, these syndromes are caused by any interference with the process of endochondral bone formation. When altered mineralization affects the epiphyseal growth plates, it is described as rickets; when it results in an excessive accumulation of osteoid tissue throughout the skeleton, it is known as osteomalacia. Hence, while rickets and...