Rickets, a disease of vitamin D deficiency, is rarely confronted by the practicing pediatrician
in the United States today. At the turn of the 20th century, rickets was rampant among the
poor children living in the industrialized and polluted northern cities of the United States.
With the discovery of vitamin D and the delineation of the anti-rachitic properties of cod-liver
oil by the 1930s, it became possible to not only treat but also eradicate rickets in the United
States. Rickets was a common disease in 17th century England. Frances Glisson's treatise …