THE PURPOSE of this paper is to present the results of studies on the gastric secretion of normal persons and of patients with duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer and gastric carcinoma. Henning and Norpoth,1 Winkelstein2 and Val Dez3 observed a greater free acidity in the nocturnal secretion of patients with duodenal ulcer than in that of a normal group. Sandweiss and others,4 on the other hand, concluded that male patients with uncomplicated duodenal ulcer do not secrete larger amounts of gastric juice than normal persons during the period from midnight to 7 a.m. It is difficult to compare the results obtained by these various workers inasmuch as varying methods of study were employed.
Dragstedt and his co-workers5 found that the average volume of the twelve hour continuous gastric secretion in 135 unselected patients with duodenal ulcer was 1,085 cc.; the average free acidity of the total