154 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



lution. Upon injection of such an extract into the gas- 

 tric musculature of animals whose stomachs had not 

 been fatigued, they rapidly developed signs of fa- 

 tigue dilations, beginning within about half an hour 

 following the injection, and progressing until the 

 stomach had undergone distention to a volume some 

 three or four times its normal size. This was accom- 

 panied by a loss of tone, and complete loss of irrita- 

 bility. These efifects were not due to the volume of 

 saline injected but must have been caused by some 

 product extracted from the fatigue muscle, because, 

 upon injecting a like quantity of saline into the stom- 

 ach musculature of other animals, similar results were 

 not obtained. 



Further evidence for the presence of a "fatigue 

 toxin" in the tissue extracts was found by injecting 

 such extracts into the peritoneal cavity of normal dogs. 

 Animals so treated developed an intense thirst some 

 eighteen hours following the injection, but vomited 

 water or milk as soon as taken into the stomach. Upon 

 opening the abdomen two days after the injection of 

 the toxin-containing extract, the stomach was found 

 to be dilated and flabby. In another similar experi- 

 ment, following the injection of the muscle extract 

 the animal was fed bread, milk and bismuth, and ex- 

 amined by the X-ray, as described by Cannon (1902) . 

 In such experiments it was found that inhibition of 

 gastric peristalsis began shortly after the injection; 

 and three or four hours later it was found that the 

 movements would cease entirely for a time, and then 

 continue sluggishly. Such results were not obtained 

 when an extract of unfatigued muscle was substituted 

 for the extract of the fatigued muscle. 



