IN EACH of the several extensive reviews on the subject of intestinal strangulation obstruction,1 certain questions concerning the nature of toxicity have been left open for speculation. With the advent of such therapeutic advances as replacement of fluids and electrolytes, broader use of blood transfusion, antibiotic therapy and intubation, great strides have been made toward lowering the basic mortality as well as the operative mortality. These advances, great as they are in the therapeutic sense, served in recent years to cool experimental interest in the nature of the toxicity in this affliction. However, during World War II much work was done along parallel lines on the general problem of tissue autolysis in shock, and a large part of the work is directly applicable to the problem of strangulation. Chemotherapy and antibiotic therapy have opened new avenues both in experimental investigation and in clinical practice, since the control of the