Shock at the millennium: I. Walter B. Cannon and Alfred Blalock

Present management of shock derives, in part, from the classic investigations of Walter B. Cannon and Alfred Blalock. The intersections of their professional lives as recorded in the professional literature and in personal correspondence suggest that Blalock's pivotal studies of experimental shock were fueled, at least in part, by Cannon's inability to resolve the inconsistencies of the then-popular toxic theory of shock. Cannon appears to have substantially shaped Blalock's thought and work, initially as authority and competitor and later as colleague and friend. Blalock's experimental proof that injury precipitated obligatory locoregional fluid losses, the effects of which could be ameliorated by vigorous restoration of plasma volume, became a cornerstone of shock theory and therapy.