Most investigators who have studied gastric motility in children have made use of the methods of gastric expression and roentgen examination chiefly for the determination of the emptying time of the digesting stomach. Such studies are limited by the fact that the examinations are brief and are made only at certain intervals, so that it is impossible to obtain a continuous record of gastric activity.
As the activity of the stomach is somewhat variable, it was thought that a continuous examination over an extended period of time might yield valuable information with regard to the inherent power of the gastric musculature under certain conditions. The present problem is concerned with the motility of the empty stomach in normal children, and in those who are of the asthenic body habitus and in a malnourished condition, being underweight for the age and height. This preliminary report includes a study of five normal