PRESCRIPTIONS

Un premier mataae, atteint d'ulcus duodenal, eonstata une recrudescence marquee des tiouleurs des Ie debut du traitement, Jusqu'a la aerniere piqftre ces douleurs persistaient, plus vives qu'auparavant, puis, une tots !a eerie terminee, eues cesserent en trois au quatre jours, pour ioire .place a une periode de bien-eire teue que Ie malade n'en avait pas connue depuis un an. (La Presse Medicale, July 27, 1935, page 1197.) He explains increase of local symptoms as indicating a local reaction, and considers that such an exacerbation does not indicate failure of the therapeutic agent, but rather evidence of its activity. On account of this focal reaction I have always been loath to prescribe histidine within three weeks of gastric hremorrhage, but with this limitation: my feeling, as yet unsupported by sutllcient clinical evidence, is that histidine is harmless, in many cases appears to be helpful, and in a few cases causes dramatic relief of symptoms, not obtained by other methods of therapy.