LEADS *

REGISTRATION of gastric and intestinal hyperperistalsis on the electrocar-diogram has been reported in a previous study.1 The sources were the gas-tric activity in a baby with congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis and the intestinal contractions in a child with congenital hypertrophic dilatation of the colon (Hirschsprung's disease), and in an elderly adult in whom borborygmi occurred in the course of a routine electrocardiogram. Hyperperistalsis was visible in the first two conditions and audible in the last. The peristaltic effect upon the electrocardiogram is not even considered in such a review as Esler and White's 2 nor is it mentioned in Mortensen's 3 study of abnormal electrocardiograms. The influence of such smooth muscle activity seems entirely ignored although suggestive effects are present in some of Wenckebach and Winterberg's 4 observations on the effect of vagus pressure and in a group of routine tracings from the Heart Station of Michael Reese Hospital examined by the author. Alvarez and his co-workers 5 ' 6 ' 7 have reported electrical registration of peristalsis in man an