Search

The mechanisms concerned in the lowering of gastric acidity following digestion have been the subject of considerable research since Pavlov1 first noticed the apparent diminution of further secretion of hydrochloric acid when there was an accumulation of that substance within the gastric cavity. Although he did no further work on the subject, he originated the idea of intrinsic control of gastric acidity.Rosemann2 noted that although the concentration of total chloride remained constant, or relatively so, in specimens of gastric content, the acid chloride measured as hydrochloric acid and the neutral chloride measured as sodium chloride varied in inverse proportion. He advanced the hypothesis that as the stimulus to gastric secretion became stronger, the amount of chloride ion secreted as hydrochloric acid became greater, and the amount secreted as neutral chloride became correspondingly less. When the stimulus was absent or less marked, the reverse occurred. Earlier investigators, notably

Much interest has been aroused by the advent of sulfapyridine. Although its use has been almost limited to the treatment of pneumonic processes, its efficacy in other conditions has been briefly reported.Instances of the use of the drug in staphylococcic septicemia or bacteremia of necessity are few and brief. Fenton and Hodgkiss1 reported its use in a case with an atypical clinical picture. A single culture of the blood revealed Staphylococcus aureus. The only significant finding was x-ray evidence of pleural thickening. The temperature dropped markedly twenty-four hours after administration of the drug. O'Brien and McCarthy2 reported staphylococcic bacteremia following furunculosis, with a dramatic drop in temperature and sterile blood culture following therapy with sulfapyridine. Maxwell's3 patient had staphylococcic bacteremia coincidental to pneumonia. Staphylococci were recovered from two cultures of the blood. The temperature dropped to normal in forty-eight hours and culture of the blood became

Search of the literature reveals only one instance of the occurrence of pilonidal cysts and sinuses in identical twins.1 The following report of such an occurrence is interesting also because of the appearance of the symptoms at approximately the same time in the two twins:I. K. and J. K., identical twins, aged 23, in December 1935, within a period of a few days, each noticed a symptom free lump at the end of the spine. One year later, again within a few days, both lumps began to drain very slightly. The drainage was serous and in one patient remained so. The other patient had a mild inflammatory reaction in March 1937 with some soreness for several days.Examination revealed in each case two small openings in the midline over the coccyx into which probes could be inserted about 2 cm. and from which there escaped a small amount