Mann, Frank C.

Acute ulcers of the gastric mucosa are found in a large percentage of dogs and cats dying after adrenalectomy. These ulcers seem to develop during the moribund period. They are apparently peptic ulcers forming at the site of local hemorrhages in the gastric mucosa. They are true acute ulcers, usually penetrating to the muscularis mucosa with a total loss of epithelium. They develop in the absence of pancreatic secretion and bile. However, they appear to develop only in an acid medium.

Emboli made of paraffin and the animal's own blood were sent into the venous circulation of dogs. Death did not occur until the pulmonary circulation was practically occluded. The results were the same whether the blood pressure of the animal was normal or depressed by ether or disease and whether the procedure was carried out under ether or local anesthesia.

Acute gastric ulcers are found in a large percentage of animals dying from acute adrenal insufficiency. In dogs in which a portion of the jejunum had been transplanted some time previous to the removal of the adrenals, the gastric mucosa showed more marked changes than the transplanted jejunal mucosa. This tends to show that the gastric juice as the cause of the ulcer is but a secondary although necessary factor.