879

adjunct to treatment of pancreatic insufficiency. We have tried this combined treatment in six patients. The patients, all males with pancreatic insufficiency (five having had a subtotal pancreatectomy) and an average age of 43 (range 34-58), had steatorrhoea (>5 g of faecal fat in 24 h. All were taking and had been taking for several months, different amounts of pancreatic extracts in powder form (8-20 g of the commercially available preparation, ’Pancreasmit’). On this regimen and with fat intake restricted to no more than 25g per meal the steatorrhaea had been managed satisfactorily (see figure). We measured faecal fat excretion5 for three consecutive 72 h periods during which each patient received his usual dosage of pancreatin or pancreatin plus cimetidine (1g daily) or cimetidine only (1 g daily). Faecal fat excretion fell significantly (p