GASTRIC ULCER STUDIES

I. THE RESISTANCE OF VARIOUS TISSUES TO GASTRIC DIGESTION The question "Why does not the stomach digest itself?" is of recurring interest to both the biologist and the physician. It is probable that the explanation for the resistance offered by the normal gastric mucosa to the digestant action of pepsin-hydrochloric acid will be of great significance in determining the etiology of gastric and duodenal ulcers. From the time of Virchow it has been the common belief that these lesions are determined by a loss of resistance on the part of the mucosa to gastric digestion; hence the term peptic ulcer. Despite the number of explanations that have been offered from time to time to account for the nondigestion of the normal gastric mucosa, the essential question remains unanswered. Hunter 1 believed that all living uninjured cells could resist the digestant action of gastric juice, a statement that at the present