The Factors in the Dehydration following Pyloric Obstruction.

The data presented in this paper were obtained from several dogs following experimental obstruction of the pylorus. The experiments were undertaken with the purpose of learning the chief factors in the causation of the rapid dehydration which follows pyloric obstruction and of explaining the prevention or repair of this change which is obtained by introducing sodium chloride and water into the body. In undertaking to investigate the cause of a reduction of the volume of body water it should at once be admitted that we have as yet only a fragmentary knowledge of the many parts of the regulatory mechanism which under usual circumstances accomplishes the remarkable adjustment of maintaining, in several elastic compartments, a closely stationary total volume of water. Certain gross data are, however, at hand which fairly satisfactorily serve the purposes of this study. It has been shown that in the presence of considerable reductions of the volume of body water the total concentration of dissolved electrolytes tends to remain stationary (1, 2). It is therefore probably permissible to postulate a close dependence of the volume of body water on the total quantity of dissolved electrolytes which the body contains. In this study the premise is used that a withdrawal of the electrolytes of the body fluids will be accompanied by a proportionate reduction of the volume of body water and that this change can only be repaired by replacing both the lost water and the lost electrolytes. The relative structural importance of each of the electrolytes in blood plasma is indicated by the diagram in figure 1, which presents