The work on which this paper is based was done for the purpose of determining whether in cases of peptic ulcer there is a possible relationship between the amount of various chloride constituents of the blood and the amount of free hydrochloric acid secreted in a stated interval at different stages of which blood was withdrawn for examination. While such a relationship was difficult, if not impossible, to discover, other facts of interest and questions arose which it was felt might be of sufficient interest to report.
That there is an increase in both free and total acidity and in the amount of gastric secretion is well known. The results of studies on the blood chlorides in these cases are not so well known, principally because of the small number of studies on this subject. Jordan1 states that in forty-one cases of ulcer, the average level of whole blood chlorides