“…An elevation of the serum level of acid phosphatase after rectal palpation was first reported in 1949 (Hock and Tessier, 1949). Other authors have either confirmed (Daniel and van Zyl, 1952;Bonner et al-, 1954;Dybkaer and Jensen, 1958;Chiari et al, 1976) or failed to confirm (Christensen and Lykkegaard-Nielsen, 1972;Wiederhorn and Pickens, 1973;Khanetal., 1978;Bannerjee et al, 1979;Johnson et al, 1979;Daar et al, 1981) this observation. Comparisons between spectrophoto-Accepted for publication 1 September 1983 metric and radioimmunoassays of acid phosphatase in studies concerning the effect of diagnostic palpation of the prostate have not been reported yet.…”