Discovery of rickets

The first scientific descriptions of rickets were written by Dr. Daniel Whistler. Whistler’s monograph on rickets was published while he was a medical student in October 1645 as his thesis for his MD degree from Leyden.

However, credit for bringing the disease to the attention of the medical world has generally been attributed to Professor Francis Glisson, whose book, De Rachitide Sive Morbo Puerili, Qui Vulgo published in 1650.

Glisson noted that the disease did not occur in chlorine younger than six months old, and occurred most frequently in children of the well-to-do rather than in those of the poorer classes.

Glisson’s treatise in rickets in s a medical classis and was the first written work on English Medicine focused on a single disease and was recognized immediately as an important source on the subject.

Rickets became a health problem in northern Europe, England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution when many people lived in urban areas with air pollution and little sunlight.

Because the disease was originally described in England, it became known as the English disease as well as rachitis and rickets.
Discovery of rickets