REPORT OF A CASE B. F., a Jesuit priest 67 years of age, was brought by ambulance to the Loretto Hospital on Oct. 26, 1950. He complained of severe abdominal pain, which was most intense in the left lower quadrant. The pain was not relieved by an enema or by 1/6 grain (0.01 gm.) of morphine sulfate given hypodermically. A second similar injection of morphine given three hours later induced a brief fitful sleep. The patient awakened with pain in the abdomen and back and moaned and tossed in agony. He had been in the hospital only six hours in his terminal stage and was thought to have a mesenteric thrombosis. The blood pressure was 190/110 on several readings and was in marked contrast to his usual pressure of 124/80. The lower pressure had been recorded on numerous occasions in the preceding six years and even while the patient had