lowered resistance of animal and human tissues to pathogenic microbes, as a result of which the microorganisms that have penetrated the body or that are circulating in the blood settle more readily and reproduce in the tissues.

The term “cataphylaxis” was coined in 1919 by the English scientists W. Bullock and W. Cranmer. Lowered tissue resistance after mechanical, thermal, or biological injury depends neither on the absence of phagocytes at the site of injury nor on a decrease in the phagocytic activity of the leukocytes. Cataphylaxis is the result of impairment by injury of the normal physiological and biochemical properties of tissues.