Chapter II 



SHOCK, AN INDICATION OF TISSUE 



DAMAGE 



Our ignorance concerning the mechanism of living 

 processes makes it exceedingly difficult to define life 

 explicitly. We are accustomed, therefore, to differen- 

 tiate animate systems from inanimate by contrasting 

 their inherent properties, such as growth, reproduc- 

 tion, and response to stimuli. In such fashion alone 

 may we discriminate between the two. 



Our ignorance regarding the transformation of in- 

 organic nature into living systems — that is, the origin 

 of life — coincides with our knowledge of the reverse 

 process, death. Owing to our continual consciousness 

 of life, we are individually more interested in the 

 causation of death than in the origin of life. 



Nordenskiold (1928) records that the aborigines 

 considered natural death to be far more wonderful 

 than life. While they regarded violent death at the 

 hands of an armed enemy or a wild beast as a matter 

 of course, the aborigines were so awed by so-called 

 natural death that they importuned an armed demon 

 as the causative factor. Although refusing to acknowl- 

 edge the existence of such a demon, we are today al- 

 most as blissfully ignorant as was primitive man, 



13 



