The surgeon and the pathologist have shown that when cancer of the stomach is diagnosed early that affection is as amenable to treatment as is cancer in other parts of the gastro-intestinal tract. At present, it would seem that early diagnosis rests largely on microscopic examination of sections of extirpated tissue. Inasmuch as prognosis is directly dependent on the process at diagnosis, it would appear desirable to elaborate certain diagnostic procedures that might anticipate laparotomy findings.
Recently the physiologic chemist has undertaken the investigation of biologic problems bearing on clinical medicine. Various workers, notably Müller,1 Fischer,2 and Abderhalden3 have reported that malignant neoplasmata contain certain peptidolytic enzymes. This discovery appeared to have clinical value when Neubauer and Fischer4 announced that simple peptids, particularly the dipeptid, glycyltryptophan, were hydrolyzed by cancerous ferments. In the case of glycyltryptophan, the amino-acid, tryptophan, which is liberated