The Treatment of Peptic Ulcer With Gastric Mucin

The ideal therapeutic agent for use in combating the irritative action of gastric juice in peptic ulcer is one that will neutralize or combine with the acid without materially stimulating or depressing gastric secretion, without materially affecting gastro-intestinal activity, and without having a general systemic action. Although alkaline powders have been and are being used in the treatment of peptic ulcer, it is well known that they are not ideal. In the literature on gastric secretion, the capacity of mucus to lower the free acid in the stomach is repeatedly suggested. In 1879 Heidenhein believed that mucus was alkaline and later Pavlov1suggested that it was the mucus which lowered the free acidity of the stomach by neutralization. Ivy2made pouches of the pyloric antrum in dogs and found the secretion of these pouches to be "mucoid, viscous, tenacious, transparent, odorless and slightly salty. It resembled egg white