PHYSIOLOGY OF CYTOST ACTION 75 



origin. In support of this contention were the experi- 

 ments of Goltz (1872), who found that, upon per- 

 cussing the mesentery of the frog, there followed a 

 reflex vagal inhibition of the heart and subsequent 

 dilation of the splanchnic vessels. Beginning in 1899, 

 Crile recorded observations showing that long con- 

 tinued stimulation of the sensory nerves elicited a 

 fall in blood pressure. Since in severe operations or 

 injury to the peritoneum a large number of sensory 

 nerves are subjected to excessive stimulation, Crile 

 concluded that shock under such conditions was due 

 to exhaustion of the vasomotor center. It was there- 

 fore natural that at the outset the author's contention 

 that shock was the result of tissue toxins should meet 

 with disapproval, as, for example, the statement of 

 Dr. James G. Kiernan (1897) : "I do not want unduly 

 to swell the neurologic trend of the discussion at the 

 present time, yet I cannot but take issue with the posi- 

 tion that local tissue change irrespective of nerve ac- 

 tion underlies the results as Dr. Turck has claimed. 

 This seems to be turning back the page of pathology 

 to the days of Broussaid. . . ." Curiously enough, 

 however, this attitude persisted up till the time of the 

 World War, despite the fact that in the interim the 

 author had published the results of numerous experi- 

 ments, showing the toxic nature of shock. The high 

 incidence of shock in wounded soldiers stimulated 

 others to investigate the underlying physiology. As 

 a consequence, various investigators, notably Bayliss, 

 Cannon, and their associates (1919), arrived at con- 

 clusions essentially the same as those expressed by 

 the author some twenty years earlier. 



In 1897 (Turck, 1897), the writer published ob- 



