CHANGES IN THE SECRETORY ACTIVITY OF THE GASTRIC GLANDS RESULTING FROM THE APPLICATION OF ACETIC ACID SOLUTIONS TO THE GASTRIC MUCOSA

1. In dogs with œsophagotomy and a gastric fistula, 1 per cent. acetic acid solution, introduced into the stomach and kept there for 2 to 2½ hours, greatly affected the secretory response to subsequent sham-feeding with meat or subcutaneous injection of histamine, diminishing the volume of the gastric secretion, lowering the total chloride concentration and the free and total acidities, and increasing the content of mucus. 2. Analogous results were obtained in a Pavlov-pouch dog and in a much lesser degree in a Bickel-pouch dog, the introduction of acetic acid into the main stomach in these cases influencing the secretory activity of the pouch par distance . 3. Evidence is advanced that the lowering of the acidity and of the total chloride concentration of the gastric juice in these experiments was due to the neutralizing and diluting effect of the mucoid secretion, an excessive production of which was caused by the introduction of acetic acid into the stomach. We are greatly indebted to Mrs. Olga Komarov for her help in a number of these experiments.