THE TISSUE FACTOR IN SHOCK

Few words now current in the medical sciences are likely to awaken so much confusion of ideas and uncertainty of judgment as is the expression "shock." It seems to represent a clinical entity of serious importance, in the interpretation of which all except the most critical students have run amuck. One after another the hypotheses to explain shock and the consequent suggestions for treating it have been martialed with a confidence seemingly born of exact knowledge —only to be shattered by conflicting evidence or before the approach of some more convincing theory. Meanwhile, keenly desirous of finding some solution to the serious and ever present problems of the clinical forms of shock, physicians have hastily grasped the current suggestions with eagerness that has been the forerunner of reluctance to abandon each pet theory. There is much sanity, therefore, in an appeal recently made by Dr. S. J. Meltzer¹ urging