EDITORIAL SYNOPSIS The possible relationship between hyperparathyroidism and peptic ulcer has stimulated renewed interest in the relationship between calcium and gastric secretion. This study shows that in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism the basal secretion of acid was raised but the augmented histamine secretion was essentially normal. The basal secretion was lowered by parathyroidectomy. Studies in dogs shows a different pattern of gastric secretory response.A possible relationship between the parathyroid glands and gastric secretion was suggested nearly 50 years ago in experiments with innervated (Pavlov) gastric pouches. Keeton (1914) found that parathyroidectomy reduced secretion in the cat, and Rogers, Rahe, Fawcett, and Hackett (1915) observed that a crude extract of parathyroid tissue caused an increase in secretion in the dog. Several others have studied the problem from time to time, while today many are interested in it because of the recognition that peptic, and especially duodenal, ulceration is a frequent feature of both primary hyperparathyroidism and the syndrome of multiple endocrine adenopathy in man (Welbourn and Ward, 1962 Parathyroidectomy (partial or total and usually combined with thyroidectomy) has always been found to reduce the secretion of acid and of pepsin in animals, and subsequent injections of calcium salts have restored it (Keeton, 1914;Chang and Sloan, 1927). Here, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the separate influences of the thyroid and the parathyroid glands, even when thyroid substitution therapy is provided, for gastric secretion is reduced by an excess and possibly by a deficiency of thyroxine (Nasset and Goldsmith, 1961). However, in a patient with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism studied very thoroughly by Donegan and Spiro (1960) free acid was completely absent and the concentration of pepsin was very low in the basal juice. An infusion of calcium gluconate and an injection of parathormone both restored secretion rapidly for short periods of time. Prolonged therapy with vitamin D and calcium maintained the secretion of acid and of pepsin at normal levels. Low concentrations of acid in the gastric juice have also been found in infants with hypocalcaemic tetany and restoration of the serum calcium concentration has increased the acidity (Babbott, Johnston, and Haskins, 1923). In both these studies the critical level of serum calcium, at which gastric secretion was restored, was about 7 0 to 7 5 mg. per 100 ml. Parathyroidectomy in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism has not been found to produce any consistent change in secretion (Donegan and Spiro, 1960