Experiments with animals have shown that diets deficient in vitamin C or D or unbalanced in their calcium and phosphorus content often lead to structural defects (hypoplasia) of bones and teeth.1 Histologic examination of carious teeth of children 2 revealed a high incidence of such defects, and it was concluded that hypoplasia predisposes to dental caries. Mellanby 3 stated that diet, by improving structure, might lead to an arrest of caries in the human being, and observations on children and adults showed that it was often possible to arrest caries with carefully controlled diets. Other investigators 4 found that a well balanced diet seemed to decrease the incidence of caries both in animals and in From the

In 1906, Meyer 1 observed a rise of temperature in infants following the feeding of casein of human milk added to whey of cow's milk. This observation stimulated further study of the factors inducing fever in infants, when a variety of substances was given either enterally or parenterally. Finkelstein 2 concluded that the fever which accompanied certain cases of severe diarrhea (alimentary intoxication) was not the result of infection but was due to the sugar present in the feeding, since frequently after the withdrawal of lactose from the food, the temperature became normal. Further observations, particularly those of Moro,3 pointed to the fact that salts and protein, especially the latter, were of even greater importance than sugar in the production of fever. Later, the pyrogenic effect of an inadequate water intake was appreciated. Marriott 4 emphasized the great importance of the water deficit in the pathogenesis of "alimentary intoxication" and introduced the term "anhydremia." The other symptoms were considered secondary to an insufficient water supply or increased water loss from the body. Finkelstein 5 observed that fever resulted in about 10 per cent of the cases, when the daily water intake was less than 50 or 60 Gm. per kilogram of body weight. As the result of these experimental observations, he concluded, in a summary of the pathogenesis of alimentary fever, that an increase of the osmotically active constituents of the body fluids frequently played an

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A large number of investigators have measured the end-products of nitrogen metabolism in the blood and their excretion in the urine in health and in disease as an aid in evaluating the functional capacity of the kidneys. Ambard and Weill 1 were the first to relate the concentration of urea in the blood to its concentration in the urine and to the urinary volume as expressed by "Ambard's coefficient." Addis and his collaborators 2 showed that more constant results could be obtained if, under standard conditions of fluid intake, the rate of urea excretion was measured as ureain 1 hour's u r i n e u r e a i n 100 cc. of b l o o d . They introduced the assumption, and supported it by animal experiments, that the weight of the kidney is proportional to surface area rather than body weight, which was used by Ambard. Under Addis' standard conditions the volume of urine in normal persons was above 2 cc. per minute.Van Slyke and his co-workers3 supplied an explanation for the constancy of Addis' ratio. They observed that above a certain urinary This investigation was assisted by the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation. From the

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