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This excellent thesis contradicts, on the basis of painstaking work, the longaccepted idea that the intestinal tract is the excretory organ for calcium. After a review of the conflicting reports on the subject, the author presents his own experiments on rabbits and goats. Feces, urine, bile, milk and various organs were analyzed for calcium, and the calcium balance was studied during inanition, during periods in which diets low in calcium were given and during periods of slow, continuous intravenous injections of solution of calcium salts.
The results disclosed the existence of a slow, irregular loss of calcium by way of the gastrointestinal tract. The intravenous administration of calcium did not accelerate this loss and did not increase the amount of calcium in the bile. Neither did it accelerate the secretion of calcium in the milk. It did, however, increase the urinary output and the amount stored in the kidneys. The