NEUROMUSCULAR "TRANSMISSION-FATIGUE" PRODUCED WITHOUT CONTRACTION DURING CURARIZATION

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Abstract
A motor nerve was continuously stimulated in cats with a frequency of 60 per sec. after a paralyzing dose of curare had been injected. When the control muscle of the opposite side, periodically tested, showed complete decurarization, the muscle on the continuously stimulated side was usually not contracting. A renewal of the prolonged stimulation after a rest of 1 min. revealed marked transmission-fatigue. The same results were obtained in animals anesthetized with dial and in decerebrate preps. Previous (over 8 days) removal of the abdominal sympathetic chains and ligation of the adrenals did not influence the phenomenon. Transmission of the motor nerve impulses might be fatigued in conditions in which neither the nerve spike potentials nor the electrical excitability of muscles were impaired. This was compatible with the Lapicques'' and Fulton''s theories of transmission-fatigue, and was readily accounted for by the chemical theory of mediation by acetylcholine. Similar expts. (Bowditch 1890) were discussed.

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