Abstract
THE Nobel prize has been awarded to these two men of science for work on the chemical transmission of nervous impulses. It was known that the effects produced by stimulating sympathetic nerves were also produced by adrenaline, and that the effects of stimulating the vagus were also produced by mus-carine and various other drugs. Elliott had hinted, in 1904, at the possibility that sympathetic nerves might produce their effects by actually liberating adrenaline, and Dixon and also Howell had tried to show that some substance was liberated by vagus nerve endings. Dale found that extracts of ergot contained a substance like muscarine, but unstable. This substance turned out to be acetylcholine, and in 1914 Dale, realizing its possible importance in connexion with the vagus, made a detailed study of its effects in the body, in which he showed that it not only reproduced the effects of muscarine, but also those of nicotine. In 1921 Loewi published the first evidence that nerve endings liberate active substances. Under appropriate conditions, the vagus and sympathetic nerves to a frog's heart were shown to liberate two substances, detected by their action on a second heart, and called by Loewi vagusstoff and acceleransstoff. A dozen papers from Loewi's laboratory answered criticisms of this work and filled in details.
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Transmission of Nervous Impulses. Nature 138, 792 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138792b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138792b0