[Historical vision of shock]

The concept of shock and its close relationship with that of stress dates back to the experiments of Hans Selye initiated in 1936 at McGill University in Montreal, with whom I collaborated between 1939 and 1942. It was demonstrated that the General Adaptation Syndrome begins with an Alarm Reaction, which consists of a Stage of Shock and one of Counter-Shock, followed by a Stage of Adaptation and finally a Stage of Exhaustion. My Ph.D. thesis concluded that shock was due to an adrenal insufficiency postulating that active metabolic processes drain the body of certain essential compounds the lack of which causes shock. My interest in the role of the glucose metabolism in shock led me to work with Bernardo Houssay in 1942 at the Institute of Physiology of the University of Buenos Aires and in 1944 with C.N.H. Long at Yale University. There I developed a method for the induction of hemorrhagic shock in the guinea pig with 94% lethality; curiously, the administration of 200 mg of ascorbic acid prevented death. Upon my return to Buenos Aires, these results were confirmed and moreover, it was demonstrated that the administration of cortisone led to 40% survival of the animals while desoxycorticosterone had no effect. At the time, no explanation was available but to-day, half a century later, this Symposium should be able to explain the mechanisms leading to death by hemorrhagic shock.