Deficiency disease may result from a defective dietary or from abnormal physiology of the gastro-intestinal tract. Defective absorption constitutes one of the outstanding features of sprue and in certain cases has been shown to condition the development of the deficiency factors of the disease.1This occurs without extensive pathologic changes in the structure of the small intestine apart from atrophy that is not disproportionate to the general wasting of the body and the viscera.2We have observed advanced deficiency disease in several severe cases of ulcerative colitis. This suggested the possibility of a similar mechanism and led to the detailed clinical and radiologic investigation of a large group of cases of chronic ulcerative colitis. Evidence of deficiency states was found in 63 per cent of seventy-five cases studied. These conditions have presented the characteristics of partial deprivation of certain vitamins, of protein, and of important inorganic elements. The