232 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



There have been a number of deaths among those 

 engaged in the excavation of ancient tombs, and it is 

 said that the Arabs consider this as the vengeance of 

 the dead upon the excavators. Be this as it may, the 

 observations just mentioned indicate that the dead 

 may retain their cytost intact for centuries, and one 

 might reasonably imagine that some of the deaths 

 among the archeological explorers have been due to 

 overexposure to the cytost-laden dust of which Petrie 

 speaks. 



To return to the experimental aspect of the prob- 

 lem, we have noted in our discussion of the induction 

 of shock by severe burns that extracts of the charred 

 tissue, when injected into other animals, caused shock. 

 This observation suggested that the tissue might be 

 charred in vitro with the same results, and this was 

 subsequently confirmed by experiment. Naturally 

 this finding evoked an interest in the determination 

 of the degree to which charring could be carried with- 

 out loss of cytost activity. To our amazement, it was 

 found that excised tissue could be burnt to a gray 

 ash without greatly diminishing its potency. 



Such an ash when dissolved in water to form a 10% 

 solution and injected intravenously into animals 

 caused shock and death, provided a sufficient quantity 

 was injected. Thus, 1 cc. of a 10% solution of the ash 

 obtained from cats' muscles, when injected in this 

 manner into cats weighing approximately 2500 grams, 

 will always cause the immediate onset of shock and 

 usually produce death within a very brief time after 

 the injection. 



In order to obtain tissue ash of such toxicity, it is 

 necessary that the tissue be fired at relatively low tern- 



