EDITORIAL SYNOPSIS The gastric emptying rate tends to be slower in diabetics than in normal and peptic ulcer subjects.The older workers claimed that the gastric secretion of acid was diminished in diabetes mellitus but more recent investigators have found conflicting results. Marks, Shuman, and Shay (1959), using Kay's augmented histamine test, found an acid secretory output in diabetics which differed little from the normal range. In contrast, Dotevall (1961a, b) found that acid output in diabetics was less than in normal subjects, and concluded that this lower secretory output was related to the higher blood glucose levels existing in diabetics (consistent with the depressant effect of glucose upon the secretion of acid by normal subjects and dogs, a result which has been claimed by a number of workers). This was not, however, confirmed by others. Glucose did not reproduce the marked suppressive effect of glucagon upon gastric secretion (Aylett, 1962), although blood glucose levels were comparable.The investigation of gastric empyting in diabetics is of some interest, since in peptic ulcer subjects Aylett (1962) has shown a relationship between the rate of gastric emptying and change in the blood glucose level. It would be interesting to discover, therefore, whether diabetics with their higher range of blood glucose level would show a slow gastric emptying rate compared with that of normal or of peptic ulcer subjects.Results are reported in a group of diabetic patients in whom gastric secretion and emptying rate were studied, using water test meals. MATERIALS AND METHODSDetails of the modified Hunt test meal method have already been described (Aylett, 1962). The 'meals' consisted of 750 ml. of distilled water, marked with a known quantity of phenol red. A washout of 250 ml. of tap water preceded and followed the meal. The latter was poured into the stomach through a polythene stomach tube in situ. After allowing the meal to 'digest' for 20 minutes, the residue was recovered.'Present address: Manchester Royal Infirmary.

SuminarySimpte measurements of nutritional status, using portabte instruments showed that in generat, addicts did remain within fairly satifactory nutritional limits. Those preferring heroin were significantly older and heavier than those who preferred methadone by setf-injection.

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Barbiturate misuse in maintained 'hard' drug addicts was compared over two separate annual periods. About two thirds of patients showed some evidence of barbiturate misue, including a third with overt clinical signs. In just under one third there was no evidence of such involvement. Barbiturate misuse did not necessarily occur in the same individuals in the two annual periods.A high proportion of deaths in both years involved barbiturate overdose as a main or partial factor. The number of deaths was identical. More liberal prescribing of hard' drugs had little overall effect on the misuse of barbiturates and no appreciable effect on the numbers treated for overdo.se in the Accident Department.It IS conlcuded that other measures are needed to prevent or reduce intoxication and death from barbiturates.