Gastric secretion in coeliac disease.

or microscopic in the wall of stomach and bowel. No abnormality of the digestive juices in the small intestine has been recorded. In the stomach, however, there would appear to be some interference with normal function. Marriott' found in cases of coeliac disease that there was a marked deficiency of free hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice and that this gradually returned to normal limits as the general health improved. In a series of seven cases Snell and Camp2 reported the same findings and Parsons' has stated that achlorhydria is not uncommon in coeliac disease although free acid can be obtained in response to histamine. During an investigation into the variations in gastric secretion in infancy and childhood the opportunity was taken to examine seventeen children with coeliac disease. The objects were to determine (a) the free hydrochloric and total acid contents and (b) the peptic activity, and to