The function of the central nervous system after haemorrhage.

In the first description of the characteristic symptoms following severe physical trauma, Ambroise Pare in 1575 mentioned that the features of this condition are: flaccid, atonic musculature, cold sweat, feeble, quick pulse, unresponsiveness, and general indifference. Defects in nervous function are evidentfrom this description. In 1889, Crile (Crile and Lower, 1899) suggested from experimental results that the central nervous system played an important role in the development of shock. He thought that impulses originating from the injured areas inhibited the medullary vasomotor centres, thus reducing blood pressure and, if lasting long enough, resulting in a definite impaiirment of the circulation. Opinions in the literature disagree on the role of somatic and visceral nociceptive afferent impulses in the development of irreversible shock (Slome and O'Shaughnessy, 1938; Overman and Wang, 1947; Arshawskaya, 1950; Guthrie, 1957; Popov, 1959). Later, other theories gained dominance and the interest in the nervous changes in shock gradually disappeared. But the regulatory adjustments needed to preserve physiological homeostasis depend on the nervous system so that when a progressive deterioration in homeostatic adjustment develops in response to haemorrhage nervous function must be affected. This report is concerned principally with investigations carried out in our Institute in Budapest, where one of the chief subjects of investigation has been the functional and metabolic changes in the central nervous system and the significance of altered regulatory processes in the development of haemorrhagilc shock. Biochemical Changes in Brain Tissue after Trauma to the Body