RELATIONS BETWEEN GASTRIC ACHYLIA AND SIMPLE AND PERNICIOUS ANEMIA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Fenwick¹ was the first to demonstrate the occurrence of gastric achylia in pernicious anemia; he thought that this might be the cause of the anemia, but emphasized the atrophy of the gastric mucosa. The discussion which followed, therefore, dealt mainly with this atrophy, and when it was found that achylia might be present without atrophy Fenwick's hypothesis lost ground and both anemia and achylia were generally considered coordinated phenomena due to some toxic influence. At the International Congress of Medicine in London (1913) one of us (K. F.) again put forward the hypothesis that the anemia frequently found with achylia gastrica was a secondary phenomenon produced by the lack of gastric secretion even though no atrophy could be demonstrated. In support of this theory he described three cases of pernicious anemia, in which achylia and normal hemoglobin had been found from three to nine years before the onset of