NATURAL RESISTANCE AND FATIGUE 165 



oxygen, and an accumulation of metabolites, includ- 

 ing any cytost which may have been formed by their 

 activities. 



Since under the conditions specified above the 

 activities of the tissues have been minimized as a re- 

 sult of inaction, the cytost arising from this source 

 cannot in all likelihood attain a sufficient concentra- 

 tion in the body fluids to be of serious consequence. 

 Nevertheless, the faulty nutrition of the tissues and 

 their prolonged exposure to acidic metabolites must 

 result in some degree of autolysis, as explained in an 

 earlier chapter; and, as show^n previously, the auto- 

 lytic process results in the liberation of cytost in con- 

 siderable quantities. In consequence, there will be 

 an accumulation of this substance in and about the tis- 

 sues of the inactive limb, and these tissues will there- 

 fore suffer. By this line of reasoning we reach the con- 

 clusion that the cause of atrophy in immobilized 

 tissues is twofold, being due in part to impaired 

 nutrition and in part to the accumulation of cytost. 



If an animal is completely immobilized, then his 

 entire system will be exposed to the toxic action of 

 large quantities of cytost arising in the manner de- 

 scribed above; for the general impairment of the cir- 

 culation will also inhibit the excretion of any toxic 

 products formed in the tissues. The writer has per- 

 formed experiments in this connection by bandaging 

 rabbits in such a fashion that all movements other than 

 those incident to respiration were inhibited. In the 

 writer's experience, all the animals so treated died 

 within thirty-six hours following the application of 

 the bandages. At autopsy the blood was found to have 

 undergone coagulation and stasis in the viscera simi- 



