Gastric Motility in Relation to Anhydraemia.

Abstract

In an attempt to throw some light on the disturbances of gastric motility occurring during the deficiency of what has been spoken of hitherto as vitamin B these experiments were undertaken. Dogs were deprived of water and parallel observations on gastric motility, and blood concentration as indicated by hemoglobin estimations, were made. Except for anorexia and decrease in general activity no abnormal symptoms were in evidence. All of the dogs developed an increase of approximately 20% in hemoglobin (estimated by the method of Cohen and Smith 1 ) and complete gastric atony. Liberal administration of water produced a rapid decrement in blood concentration, followed by a return of gastric motility to normal within a few days. The results indicate a striking parallelism to exist between anhydraemia and gastric motility. The significance of this phenomenon in relation to disturbances of gastric motility occurring in “B”-avitaminosis will be discussed elsewhere.