My purpose in this paper is to discuss briefly certain military aspects of gastric disease. Attention will be centered on the two most frequent conditions: peptic ulcer and chronic gastritis. The discussion will be based on civilian experience, on the records of the last war and on the reports from British and Canadian sources since the outbreak of the present conflict. In the first world war gastric disorders were, according to Hurst,1rather "rare among soldiers." Schindler,2however, states that they were not rare in the German army, and Dick3recalls that in Base Hospital 11 of the American Expeditionary Forces in France digestive disorders were common. On the basis of civilian experience, indeed, one would not expect them to be rare. Autopsy studies indicate that peptic ulcer occurs at some time in at least 12 per cent of all adults. Furthermore, the lesion appears about three