280 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



toxemia of pregnancy, and in our own laboratory 

 findings of histologic changes in the livers of cats and 

 rabbits in normal pregnancy. Moreover, Lusk and 

 his co-workers have demonstrated by exact calori- 

 metric methods that there is an increased energy 

 transformation (metabolism) during pregnancy. 



According to this reasoning, eclampsia may be re- 

 garded as the end result of a failure of the mechanism 

 whose special function is the neutralization of the acid 

 by-products resulting from the increased energy trans- 

 formation of pregnancy. Ultimately, the liver gives 

 way under the strain and becomes so incapacitated 

 that the acid by-products of metabolism are not com- 

 pletely neutralized and in consequence there occur 

 acidosis, headache, drowsiness, stupor and convulsions. 

 The phenomena of puerperal eclampsia have many 

 points in common with those attending the breakdown 

 of the acid-neutralizing mechanism in Bright's disease, 

 in diabetes and in cirrhosis of the liver. The patho- 

 logic phenomena of pregnancy may thus be explained as 

 the result of excessive activation of the kinetic system. 

 (Fig. 70.) The kinetic system takes much of the burden 

 of producing offspring, just as it takes the burden of 

 securing food, of combating enemies, of avoiding 

 danger, of expressing the emotions, of overcoming in- 

 fections and of maintaining the chemical standard of 

 the body. In the amount of excessive energy trans- 

 formation it entails, pregnancy may thus be compared 

 to infection, emotion, etc. 



As a corollary, we may understand why pregnancy 

 does not occur if there be deficiency of the two great 

 activators of the kinetic system the thyroid and the 



