We feel certain that the method which we shall attempt to describe for the control of a definite clinical syndrome has not been described elsewhere. At the same time, we do not claim credit for the origin of the separate and independent factors that are involved in the procedure.
Intestinal obstruction, or at least the clinical picture that we ascribe to it, has been referred to for centuries. Since the etiology, symptomatology and pathology are so well understood and so widely discussed in the literature, we have purposely omitted them from this paper.
Our attention was first directed toward this work several years ago, during a period of physiologic research. At that time the fact which impressed us was that practically all workers were agreed as to the etiology, symptoms and pathology of this clinical picture, but that their differences and difficulties arose in attempting to explain the sequence and