596 ^A^A^.4L^ NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



example, as a transmitter at parasympathetic endings. After all, ACh 

 is an ion with rather striking physico-chemical properties. In just 

 such fashion have the ubiquitous respiratory hemins of cells been se- 

 lected for the special function of transporting oxygen. The parallel 

 evolution of hemoglobin in utterly separate phyla, as the vertebrates 

 and annelids, was a great mystery before the discovery that such re- 

 lated molecules as cytochrome are almost universally present in cells. 

 I am suggesting, then, that ACh may extend further and have more 

 importance in cell functioning than has yet been seriously considered 

 and that any particular role it plays in transmission is a secondary and 

 derivative one. In arguing, as I have, for renouncing the belief that 

 ACh has any direct function in nerve conduction and in transmission 

 at many junctions, I am inviting those who work with the ACh sys- 

 tem to emerge from the chrysalis which they have outgrown and to seek 

 fresher and greater fields of intellectual nourishment. 



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