WE ARE presenting the history and investigations concerning a patient with progressive decalcification, a low serum phosphorus content and renal glycosuria. The findings suggest that a physiologic defect of the renal tubules is the primary cause for certain osteoporotic conditions of obscure origin.
REPORT OF A CASE
D. L., a man aged 39 years at death, was born at St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, in 1906, the seventh child of a family of nine, the other members being four brothers and four sisters.As a child he was considered to be healthy and strong. His father died in 1914 of a gastric ulcer, and his mother died (after World War I) of meningitis. Seven of the family are dead, six of tuberculosis and the seventh from an accident. The youngest brother is well.When aged 22, after a severe infection of the throat stiffness developed in his back and muscles, which passed