DENTAL CARIES IN THE COTTON EAT(25)

his diet. This is either due toits lower mineral content or the unavailability of the mineralspresent.With respect to the greater cariogenicity of processedcereals in comparison to whole grains, Osborn and co-workers(Osborn et al., '37; Osborn and Noriskin, '37) concluded asa result of in vivo and in vitro experiments that this greatercariogeiiicity was due to the loss of minerals, particularlycalcium and phosphorus. The mineral content of the variouscereal diets used by us was very similar, due to the presenceof 32% milk. This level of milk (providing minerals approximately equivalent to 2% salts IV) was sufficient to result ina normal ash content of the femurs (63 to 67%). The dietswere essentially identical except for the type of cereal fed.Although the local action of minerals intimate