Abstract
Dogs were submitted to hermorrhagic shock, resuscitated shock and resuscitated shock plus a pulmonary bacterial insult. Pulmonary familure was absent in dogs submitted only to shock or to shock and its resuscitation. The addition of usually sub-lethal amounts of micro-organisms to the shock-resuscitated lung caused rapid death from pulmonary failure. Pulmonary failure was demonstrated by increased lung weight, hypoxemia, decreased compliance and a hemorrhagic destruction of lung tissue. These findings strongly support recent concepts of an infective genesis of "shock lung" in man.