FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE CONSERVATION OF INTESTINAL RHYTHMICITY AFTER DEATH

Abstract

In the dying animal the rhythmic contractions of the small bowel are slowed and are usually soon stopped. They become active again when the bowel is cut out and suspended in warm oxygenated Locke''s solution. After degenerative section of the vagi, 0 the major splanchnics, or of both sets of nerves, death produces little if any slowing of the rhythmic contractions because they have already been slowed by the destruction of the nerves. The rhythmic contractions are soon stopped but not so quickly as in normal animals. The fact that contracting segments of excised intestine can be revived repeatedly by changing the solution bathing them shows that toxic or inhibiting substances are formed and excreted.