Inheritance of coeliac disease.

Coeliac disease has been for many years a familiar diagnosis to those interested in the diseases of children. The signs and symptoms (Buchan, 1786; Gee, 1888) are those that might be expected in any extensive disturbance of absorption. As fibrocystic disease (Andersen, 1938) and other welldefined causes of malabsorption have been recognized, there has been a resulting change in the scope of 'coeliac disease'. It may be that even now 'coeliac disease' is not a single disorder, but present experience seems to indicate that if coeliac disease is defined as a malabsorptive disorder associated with villous atrophy of the jejunum and responding to withdrawal of gluten from the diet, it becomes a sufficiently well-defined entity to make study of its aetiology possible.