Chemical Mediators of Autonomic Nerve Impulses

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Abstract
A review of recent studies on the evidence for action of a chemical agent between the nerve impulse and the reacting tissue. The author surveys the testimony that autonomic nerves end inside smooth muscle cells, that histologists have not reported double innervation (sympathetic and parasympathetic) on any single cell, and that they find relatively few smooth muscle cells in any given mass supplied with nerve terminals. He then reviews the studies by Loewi and his successors on the effects and nature of "Vagusstoff" and the recent extension of those studies to other ranges of parasympathetic innervation. He also calls attention to the substance, "sympathin," given off structures having sympathetic nerve endings, that, carried in the blood stream, may affect distant organs. He describes the recent experiments which indicate that there are two kinds of sympathin, "sympafchin E" for excitation and "sympathin I" for inhibition. The relations of this evidence to Langley''s ideas of receptive substances are considered. Also the pharmacological implications of the new notions of chemical transfer of nerve impulses are dealt with.

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