For many years in his clinical work one of us (K.) noticed that different kinds of oil, when introduced into the rectum of a patient in the evening had a harmful effect on digestion the next day; with a lack of appetite, heavy stomach, coated tongue and other symptoms of gastric disorder. He concluded from this that gastric secretion is inhibited by such a use of oils. The experiments of Pawlow1 and his pupils (Lobasoff,2 Virshubsky,3 Sokoloff4 and others) have proved that oils are inhibitors of gastric secretion, and that the inhibition has its origin in the mucosa of the small intestine.
Kellogg5 explained the mechanism of this inhibiting effect, in the patients observed by him, by the following fact, which had been noted and proved in this clinic by Case.6 It was found that with the roentgen ray one could frequently observe rapid and numerous reverse movements of the