Summary Attention is drawn to the different effects of different kinds of cereals and starches on patients with coeliac disease. The effect of wheat flour is unfavourable while that of wheat starch is harmless. The harmful effect is produced by a still unknown substance and not by starch. The substance in question is provisionally called the “wheat factor.” The effect of this factor is judged according to its ability to produce or aggravate anorexia, vomiting, diarrhoea and steatorrhoea. Several conclusions as to the significance of this factor are presented.

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Summary In 3 children suffering from chronic diarrhoea in which all normally occurring causes (including coeliac disease) were ruled out, the absence (or defective functioning) of invertase and/or maltase was proved to be the cause. The diarrhoea was arrested with a monosaccharide diet, and in the case of invertase deficiency also an invertase preparation helped. The observation of Holzel et al. that a chronic diarrhoea—without excretion of lactose with the urine—also can be caused by lactase deficiency could be confirmed in another child. The criteria were the severity of the diarrhoea, the pH of the faeces and the excretion in the stools of lactic acid and the volatile lower fatty acids, gas‐chro‐matographically differentiated into formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, (iso)‐butyric acid, (iso)valeric acid and caproic acid. It appeared that for the diagnosis of diarrhoeas caused by carbohydrate intolerance, the lactic acid content of the faeces is especially valuable. Differentiation of the faecal flora gives no help. In no case more than traces of sugar where excreted with the urine.

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