RELEASE OF CYTOST 63 



years by the experiments of Draper and his co- 

 workers. (Draper and Johnson, 1930.) 



In the first chapter attention has been called to the 

 fact that local application to the gastric mucosa of 

 caustic chemicals leads to cell necrosis and subse- 

 quent shock. The experiments upon shock induced 

 by general anesthesia suggested the mechanism of the 

 reaction to be the same as in other cases of experimental 

 shock ; i.e., an autolysis of tissue giving rise to the shock 

 toxin. If this hypothesis is correct, then one should 

 be able to induce a localized tissue autolysis at any 

 desired site by the injection of a substance such as 

 chloroform. If the extent of the autolysis induced in 

 this manner is sufficiently great, then the experimental 

 animals should exhibit symptoms of shock. 



Experiments of this type have been reported by the 

 v^riter (Turck, 1922b). Cats w^ere injected intramus- 

 cularly twice weekly with 0.25 cc. of absolute alcohol, 

 ether or chloroform. The animals died after five or six 

 months of such treatment. At autopsy these animals 

 all showed a chronic interstitial nephritis with stag- 

 nation of blood and autolysis of the tubules. In these 

 experiments it was of course recognized that the ob- 

 served pathology might have been due to the direct 

 action of the drugs upon the tissues and not caused by 

 cytost released from cells at the site of the injection. 

 In order to settle this point experiments of the fol- 

 lowing nature were conducted. Chloroform was in- 

 jected deeply into the tissues of cats. After a lapse of 

 time sufficient to permit a complete local necrosis, the 

 tissues were removed from the site of the injection. 

 A sterile saline extract was prepared and injected two 

 or three times a week into normal animals. At autopsy. 



