44 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



general malaise, marked fall in blood pressure, ster- 

 torous respiration, and, what is generally more sig- 

 nificant, rapid fall in blood pressure." 



And, "The conclusions that can be drawn from the 

 details of the experiments made on animals under 

 chloroform or ether are that where shock is produced 

 (by the anaesthetic) it does not materially differ from 

 the shock that results from trauma." 



While in papers published previously to that from 

 which the foregoing is taken, the author stressed the 

 concept that shock was induced by toxins liberated 

 from damaged tissues, the above statements show 

 clearly that the author was cognizant of the very gen- 

 eral nature of the underlying mechanism of shock 

 brought about by divers experimental means. This 

 was early recognized by Munch, who published a re- 

 view of the writer's early experiments in 1903. 



In general, however, it must be admitted that the 

 writer's long-standing thesis did not until recently 

 receive either general recognition or experimental 

 confirmation by others. However, with the advent 

 of the Great War, and the appalling incidence of 

 shock amongst the wounded, a concentrated effort was 

 made by many workers to discover the underlying 

 physiology of shock. Until almost the end of the War, 

 nevertheless, a number of prominent research workers 

 were committed to the theory that shock is of nervous 

 origin. In 1918, Quenu, on the basis of his experience 

 with the wounded, was led to postulate the existence 

 of a shock toxin. Shortly afterward, Dale and Laid- 

 law (1919) found that the intravenous injection of 

 histamine would produce symptoms identical with 

 those of shock, and in consequence it has been postu- 



