["100 rats and 20 children!"--Julius Moses and the debate over human experiments in the Weimar Republic]

In 1900, the Prussian ministry of cultural affairs for the first time issued ethical guidelines on human experimentation. These guidelines were not able to prevent questionable human experiments in Germany during the Weimar Republic. In 1928 the testing of a vitamin-D-medication in the Berlin "Kaiserin Auguste Victoria-Haus" led to a public scandal. The physician and active social democrat Julius Moses played a decisive role in the disclosure of this scandal and of other inadmissible experiments. Subsequently in 1930, the "Reichsgesundheitsrat" developed improved guidelines distinguishing between scientific and therapeutic experiments.

Sir Leonard Parsons of Birmingham (1879-1950) and antenatal paediatrics

Born and educated in the Midlands, Sir Leonard Parsons made major contributions to the field of paediatrics in that area and played a leading role in the regional organisation of this specialty throughout the United Kingdom in the later years of his life. He was a founder member and later President of the British Paediatric Association, and later became Vice-President of the International Pediatric Congress and the President of the paediatric section of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[The iconography of consumption in the ancient world]

There is in Delphi a votive statue - representing a man affected with phtisis - which is said to have been dedicated by Hippocrates himself. A little bronze found in Soissons could refer to the legend of Perdiccas' love sickness. We draw a parallel between Perdiccas' bronze and a mosaique in Lambiridi. Others representations (portraits, coins, statues of rickety children and iconographies of the Old Age) of weak and thin bodies are here studied following a medical approach.

Infant feeding in the 20th century: formula and beikost

The early years of the 20th century were notable for improvements in general sanitation, dairying practices and milk handling. Most infants were breast-fed, often with some formula feeding as well. Availability of the home icebox permitted safe storage of milk and infant formula, and by the 1920s, feeding of orange juice and cod liver oil greatly decreased the incidence of scurvy and rickets. Use of evaporated milk for formula preparation decreased bacterial contamination and curd tension of infant formulas. From 1930 through the 1960s, breast-feeding declined and cow's milk and beikost were introduced into the diet at earlier and earlier ages. Although commercially prepared formulas, including iron-fortified formulas replaced home-prepared formulas, few infants were breast-fed or formula fed after 4-6 mo of age. Iron deficiency was prevalent. From 1970 through 1999, a resurgence of breast-feeding was associated with a prolongation of formula feeding and an increase in usage of iron-fortified formulas. By the end of the century, formula feeding of older infants had largely replaced feeding of fresh cow's milk and the prevalence of iron deficiency had greatly decreased.

[Crooked and short legs. Historical retrospect]

In the past rickets, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis of the knee joint were the main causes for deformities and shortening of the children's legs. Orthotics played a major role in treatment and rehabilitation, and they were often used for life. In the nineteenth century orthopaedic surgeons developed procedures such as tenotomy, osteoclasis, osteotomy, excision of joints and arthrodesis, combined with conservative therapy or instead of it. In an incessant attempt to control wound suppuration--before Lister's antiseptic principle and aseptic practices were available--the "subcutaneous" approach was inaugurated for tendon and bone surgery.

Forgotten mysteries in the early history of vitamin D

In the early 1920s, workers in both England and the US had discovered that rats on a rachitic diet would remain healthy if irradiated with ultraviolet light. However, they also found, to their surprise, that "control" rats too would recover if either their jar was irradiated without the rat in it or if a cage-mate was removed for irradiation and then returned. The ideas that either air or material objects that had been irradiated continued themselves to convey healthful secondary radiations were investigated but not confirmed. There was then the commercially important finding that with irradiation, some rachitic diets would become anti-rachitic. However, this effect did not explain all the previous findings. Consumption of either small irradiated fecal particles or of feces from irradiated rats was the likely explanation for the recovery of nonirradiated rats, but this was not tested by direct experiment, and it now appears unlikely that feces from irradiated rats would show significant antirachitic activity. It is suggested that an alternative possibility--activity of grease from irradiated fur--deserves investigation.

[Repeat cesarean delivery by the Zurich city wound physician Johann Jakob Locher 1817/18]

Caesarean delivery was rarely practised in the early nineteenth century and was considered highly dangerous, being both technically and morally controversial. In view of this, Johann Jakob Locher's performance of two consecutive caesareans attracted international attention. Not only contemporary printed literature, but also the archive material and specimens presented in this journal for the first time provide a uniquely detailed account of the operations. The University of Zurich's Institute and Museum of the History of Medicine were able to acquire the preserved pelvis of the patient in 1983.

Cod-liver oil, vitamin D and the fight against rickets

Although rickets has all but disappeared as a medical problem, the disease caused serious concern in turn-of-the-century England, where it reached epidemic proportions. The connection between rickets and a lack of vitamin D wasn't made until shortly after World War I, when it was determined that regular exposure to sunlight would eliminate the problem; another solution was to provide vitamin D supplements in milk. The problem hasn't disappeared entirely, however. Seventeen cases of rickets have been diagnosed at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children in the past 5 years.

"Extraordinarily interesting and happy years": Martha M. Eliot and pediatrics at Yale, 1921-1935

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McCollum Award Lecture, 1994: vitamin D--new horizons for the 21st century

Vitamin D is absolutely essential for the maintenance of a healthy skeleton throughout our lives. There is mounting evidence that vitamin D insufficiency and vitamin D deficiency in elderly people is a silent epidemic that results in bone loss and fractures. It is casual exposure to sunlight that provides most humans with their vitamin D requirement. Seasonal changes, time of day, latitude, aging, sunscreen use, and melanin pigmentation can substantially influence the cutaneous production of vitamin D. Although the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D in adults is 5 micrograms (200 IU), there is mounting evidence that in the absence of exposure to sunlight the vitamin D requirement is at least 15 micrograms (600 IU)/d. The skin is a target tissue for the active form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol). 1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol inhibits the proliferation of cultured keratinocytes and induces them to differentiate. 1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol and its analogs have been developed as an effective new therapy for the treatment of the hyperproliferative skin disease psoriasis.