Medical aspects of ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease of unknown aetiology, uncertain prognosis and unsatisfactory treatment. In these respects -it is, of course, not unique. Its claim to recognition as a clinical entity rests on the existence of a number of cases showing inflammatory changes in the colon and rectum which cannot be attributable to any specific cause. It may be, however, that the cases now grouped together under the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis will turn out'to be the end result of a number of different pathological processes or, on the other hand, ulcerative colitis may prove to be a local manifestation of some generalized disease.