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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1912
UNSUSPECTED LOSSES OF WATER FROM THE BODY
A recent contribution on the cause of death in experimental intestinal obstruction, published by Hartwell and Hoguet in The Journal,1 deserves more than passing notice because of the useful therapeutic indications contained in the communication. These authors had earlier been able to exclude an invasion of the blood and organs by bacteria as causal factors in the marked toxic action which follows an obstruction of the bowel.2 They were accordingly at first inclined to adopt an explanation which has been a refuge from various perplexing problems in the past. This attributes death and the accompanying pathologic phenomena to the absorption of products of alimentary origin which gain entrance into the circulation