As early as 1918, McCann1 showed an increase in the alkali reserve of the blood in pyloric obstruction. Two years later, MacCallum, Lintz, Vermilye, Leggett and Boas2 reported an increase in the carbon dioxid combining power of the blood plasma, and a fall in chlorids following sectioning of the pylorus in dogs. Hastings, Murray and Murray3 studied the blood of dogs with pyloric obstruction and found that they all developed an alkalosis. Grant4 noted a similar rise in the carbon dioxid combining power of the plasma and a reduction of the chlorids in two clinical cases of obstruction of the pylorus.
In acute intestinal obstruction, Tileston and Comfort5 were the first to report an increase in the blood nitrogen. Cooke, Rodenbaugh and Whipple,6 in experiments on dogs, also found a rise in the nonprotein and urea nitrogen. Draper7 reports essentially the same findings,