BIOMETRY OF CALCIUM, INORGANIC PHOSPHORUS, CHOLESTEROL, AND LIPOID PHOSPHORUS IN THE BLOOD OF RABBITS : I. NORMAL ANIMALS FROM RECENTLY ACQUIRED STOCK.

Determinations of calcium, inorganic phosphorus, cholesterol and lipoid phosphorus were made on a series of animals recently received from the dealer for the purpose of determining the trends of these 4 blood constituents throughout the year with the degree of their respective variations and mathematical correlation. It was found that for the 80 animals examined, calcium varied from 14.5 +/-0.10 to 18.5 +/-0.39 mg. and inorganic phosphorus 4.960 +/-0.20 to 6.820 +/-0.20 mg. per 100 cc. of blood serum. Cholesterol varied from 51.1 +/-1.18 to 73.3 +/-1.34 mg. and lecithin from 94.8 +/-1.397 to 168.3 +/-10.18 mg. per 100 cc. of whole blood. Of the 6 possible combinations in calculating the coefficient of correlation for the trend throughout the experiment, 3 stand out as of mathematical significance, namely the following. Between inorganic phosphorus and lecithin the coefficient of correlation was found to be -0.794 +/-0.088; between calcium and cholesterol -0.887 +/-0.051 and between cholesterol and lecithin +0.560 +/-0.164.