The absorption and excretion of ‘minor’ elements by man

OUR knowledge of the biological principles underlying the excretion of minerals, whether physiological, pharmacological or pathological, is surprisingly meagre.Even the route by which many of them leave the human body is not yet-known, much less the rate at which they do so.Within recent years iron has been shown to be excreted much less readily than was 'previously supposed [McCance & Widdowson, 1938], and not by the large intestine [Nicolayson, 1935; Welch et al. 1936], but there are many problems underlying the excretion of calcium and other elements in the same periodic group [McCance & Widdowson, 1939, 1, 2f.The' introduction of radioactive elements into the physiologist's armamentarium