Thirty second meeting. 



New York University and Belleviie Hospital Medical College. 

 February //, igog. President Lee in the chair. 



28 (366) 



A method for the direct observation of normal peristalsis 

 in the stomach and intestines. 



By YANDELL HENDERSON. 



\_Froni the Physiological Laboratory of the Yale Medical School. '\ 



When the abdomen is opened peristalsis ceases. Because of 

 this fact all previous investigators have found difficulty in making 

 observations directly upon the motility of the stomach and intes- 

 tines. The peristalsis which has been seen differs considerably 

 from that which the radiographs of Cannon have shown to be the 

 normal movements. 



Failure of peristalsis, as Meltzer especially has pointed out, is 

 one of the characteristic and important phenomena of surgical 

 shock. I have advanced the hypothesis ^ that the cause of shock 

 is acapnia. By applying this theory to the problem of maintain- 

 ing normal peristalsis after laparotomy, the following simple and 

 effective method was devised. After the administration of a 

 moderate dose of morphin, the animals (dogs of about 10 kilos) 

 were anaesthetized with chloroform. So far as possible the hyper- 

 pncea of the initial stage of anaesthesia was avoided. The ab- 

 domen was laid open the entire length of the mid line. The omen- 

 tum was cut out, and the viscera moved sufficiently to bring into 

 view the upper colon, lower ileum, and the greater curvature of the 

 stomach from the pre-antral groove to the pylorus. A sheet of 

 transparent celluloid was inserted under the body wall and over 

 the viscera; and the air in the space back of this window was 

 washed out with a stream of carbon dioxide gas. To the trachea 

 was attached a tube 15 mm. in diameter and 2 meters in length. 

 Blood gas analyses showed that the blood- gases were thus main- 



* Y. Henderson: Amtrican Journal of Physiology, I908, xxi, 126. 



(67) 



