Actions of glucose and potassium chloride on osmoreceptors slowing gastric emptying.

1. Five subjects were given 373 test meals of 750 ml. water containing a range of concentrations of glucose or potassium chloride.2. The greater the concentration of solute in the meals, the greater was the volume of the test meal recovered from the stomach after a fixed time.3. When the concentrations of the solutes were expressed as m-osmole/l. corrected by osmotic coefficients based on vapour pressures at 37 degrees C, glucose and potassium chloride were indistinguishable in slowing gastric emptying.4. These results are consistent with the regulation of gastric emptying by a duodenal receptor responding to osmotic pressure.5. Potassium chloride was more nauseating than glucose on an osmolar basis.