Incidence of Rickets in Large Cities
As the result of the food scarcity during the war, rickets became widespread and led to grave crippling among the children. Owing to the effects of the present distressful economic situation, many new cases have developed, and have added to the previous injuries. Professor Engel in Dortmund gave recently some useful statistics on the incidence of the disease. Of 1,384 children in Dortmund belonging to the 2-10 age group, 594, or 42.8 per cent., were suffering from rickets. The percentage of severe types of rickets was very large, approximately 21.3 per cent, of those affected, while 40 per cent, were of the moderate type. On an average, 10 per cent, of all children examined presented severe or extremely severe types of the disease. That is an extraordinarily high percentage, which is of serious moment in view of the sequels of the severe types of