242 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



to its unique nature and will perhaps serve as an ori- 

 entation for any chemically minded investigator who 

 wishes to extend our experiments. At any rate, the 

 study of the effects of tissue ash upon the activities 

 of cells and tissues appears to offer an interesting field 

 of experimentation. 



In this connection it is of interest to note the recent 

 investigations of Alexander, Weaver, and McConnell 

 (1930), who found that the size of wheals caused by 

 the subcutaneous injection of histamine was consid- 

 erably enlarged if the latter were mixed with an aque- 

 ous extract of skin prior to the injection. In a later 

 paper the same authors report that the substance in 

 the skin which augments histamine wheals resists ash- 

 ing temperatures, and on the basis of their experi- 

 ments they suggest that it is calcium sulphate. 

 (Weaver, McConnell, and Alexander, 1931.) 

 Further, they found that the wheal forming powers 

 of atropine and codeine are likewise augmented by 

 skin extracts, and they state that it is likely that con- 

 stituents of the ash other than calcium are capable 

 of augmenting the localized action of histamine. 



At first glance these conclusions may not appear 

 relevant to our investigations. But if the reader will 

 recall that it has been pointed out previously in con- 

 nection with our discussion of shock that extracts of 

 autolyzed tissue possess a histamine-like action, this 

 discussion may strike a responsive chord. Various 

 considerations discussed in earlier chapters have led 

 to the conclusion that cytost is always present to a 

 greater or lesser extent in the normal animal. Such 

 being the case, it might be imagined that the introduc- 

 tion of tissue ash into the circulation of an animal 



