The problem of the relation of rickets to defective formation of teeth and to the occurrence of dental caries is one that has been of increasing interest to investigators in recent years, and one regarding which various and differing opinions have been expressed as a result of clinical investigations and animal experimentation. The data reported in the present study are entirely clinical and have to do with observations on the permanent teeth of children whose previous history with regard to rickets is known. A review of recent literature shows that few clinical investigations have been undertaken that deal with the relation of rickets to defects of the teeth, either defects of structural development or caries.MacKay and Rose,1 in 1931, reported a study of the incidence of dental defects in the permanent teeth of two groups of children; the first, a group of 46 who in infancy had shown evidences of rickets at clinical examination, and the second, a group of 40 who had shown no clinical evidence of the disease in early life. Though they found that hypoplasia of the permanent teeth occurred more frequently in the rachitic group, the amount of caries was only slightly greater in this group than in the control group. They concluded from their findings that "D deficiency in infancy and early childhood, with consequent hypo¬ plasia of the permanent teeth, is not the main factor in determining the incidence of dental caries."Hess and Abramson,2 approaching the problem in a similar manner, studied the incidence of caries and of defects in the enamel in the From the New Haven Rickets Studies of the United States Children's Bureau in collaboration with the

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