228 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



it ceases to exercise its protective function and the 

 varied intestinal flora may gain access to the body. 



When shock is induced in animals it is found that 

 the nature of the intestinal wall is so altered that it be- 

 comes readily pervious to bacteria. Thus the abdomen 

 of animals under ether anesthesia was exposed to an 

 air blast until marked venous stasis and shock were 

 produced. After recovery from the latter, some of 

 the animals were fed cultures of B. colt. A day later 

 sections were obtained from the intestine. Both in 

 animals that had been fed the cultures of bacteria and 

 those which had not, it was found that bacterial inva- 

 sion had taken place. 



A similar result was obtained with animals which 

 had been brought into shock by prolonged anesthesia. 

 (Turck, 1914, 1917.) Curiously enough, the bacterial 

 invasion was not accompanied by leucocytic infiltra- 

 tion or any other evidences of an inflammatory proc- 

 ess. 



The essential point to be noted here is that inter- 

 ference with the splanchnic circulation which always 

 occurs in shock lessens the ability of the Zona Trans- 

 formans to cause the bacteriolysis of the invading 

 organisms. It follows from this, and the fact that 

 cytost intoxication always leads to a greater or lesser 

 degree of splanchnic stasis, that such intoxication must 

 be regarded as a predisposing cause of infection by 

 way of the intestinal route. 



The bacteriolysis which we have found to take place 

 in the Zona Transf ormans opens the way to an under- 

 standing of the diffusion or non-dififusion of other 

 substances through the walls of the intestine. As is 

 well known, protein molecules do not pass through 



