Present therapeutic efforts directed against gastroduodenal ulceration are an outgrowth of empiricism bolstered by laboratory experimentation which sometimes comes out in such a way as to confirm fixed ideas. From the standpoint of progress in medical management, one can summarize by saying that several dozen new variations in therapy have been introduced, enabling clinicians to obtain the unsatisfactory results of ten or twenty years ago by a greater variety of methods.
The early clinical work on peptic ulcer was, viewed in retrospect, purely of the trial and error variety. Its object seems to have been to find something which would alleviate the distress of the sufferer. This was finally accomplished by the frequent administration of alkaline powders. If insufficient relief was obtained, these powders were given every hour and, if the patient still complained, throughout the night. When this procedure didn't succeed, the stomach was emptied by tube from time