Clinical and experimental observations have indicated that a mechanical and a chemical factor are important in the healing of gastric ulcers and ulcers of the upper intestinal tract. All widely used medical managements, whether using intensive alkalization, as in Sippy's method, or following the methods of Lenhartz and Smithies, avoid trauma caused by coarse and irritating foods.
Ivy and Fauley,1 in their experimental work, have demonstrated that the mechanical, chemical and mucosal susceptibility factors are most important in the etiology of intestinal ulcers following gastroenterostomy. They demonstrated that roughage in the diet is conducive to the formation of a chronic gastric ulcer in rabbits.
Kim and Ivy,2 by using mucin, prevented the formation of ulcers in dogs with biliary fistula, whereas 60 per cent of the dogs developed ulcers when not fed mucin.
Fogelson3 has shown gastric mucin to be an aid in the treatment of ulcer