Tonus of Vaso-motor Center in Shock. 



49 



digestion of the serum. The study of this process revealed the 

 fact that the substances, resulting from autodigestion of the 

 serum are toxic to homologous animals — and possibly identical 

 with so-called anaphylatoxin. Last year 1 I described a method 

 in which making use of anaphylatoxin formation I was able to 

 diagnose tuberculosis. In this communication I wish to describe 

 an improvement of the method which makes it possible to apply 

 this test not only to tuberculosis, but to any condition where 

 Abderhalden test or complement deviation test could be applied. 



The technique is as follows. 2 c.c. of the serum of the patient 

 is injected in the guinea pig and the next day the guinea pig's 

 blood is collected. This blood, containing at the same time 

 complement and antibody (passively transmitted) is allowed to 

 form anaphylatoxin in a test tube by combining it with tuberculin, 

 placenta, tumor tissue or any other substratum, after which the 

 serum is collected and injected into a normal guinea pig. The 

 test can be made by intravenous or intracutaneous inoculation. 

 In the first case one obtains an acute anaphylactic shock, in the 

 second a local reaction as described by me as serum-skin test. 



32 (964) 



On the tonus of the vaso-motor center in shock. 



By M. G. Seelig and Don R. Joseph. 



[From the Department of Physiology of the St. Louis University 

 School of Medicine.} 



The experiments here reported were designed to show if pos- 

 sible whether the vaso-motor center is paralyzed or shows evidence 

 of any considerable degree of tonus during surgical shock. 



White rabbits were used. One superior cervical sympathetic 

 ganglion was removed and the auricularis magnus nerve on the 

 same side cut. The connections of the blood vessels of the 

 denervated ear with the vaso-motor center were therefore severed. 2 

 Twenty-four hours or more later the animal was etherized and 

 shock induced by opening wide the abdomen, manipulating the 



1 Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 1914, XI, pp. 90-92. 



2 Meltzer, Amer. J. Physiol., 1903, IX, p. 57. 



