PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. — SUB-SECTION, PHARMACY. 135 



attributed the therapeutic effect on uterine activity to " sphaceliriic 

 acid," and another to " cornutin." Probably the main effect of these 

 researches on the course of ergot investigations was the establishment 

 of the cock's-comb test as an empirical measure of the activity of the 

 drug. From the chemical point of view the subject was left, in 1897, 

 in a far worse positior than that to which Tanret had brought it in 

 1875, and the official pharmacological teaching concerning ergot 

 became once more a matter of complicated terminology for ill-defined 

 substances. 



This was the state of affairs when, in 1904, an investigation was 

 begun at the Wellcome Physiological Kesearch Laboratories. Those 

 responsible for this soon came to the conclusion that it would be 

 fruitless, in the first instance, to search for a principle endowed with 

 all the physiological actions which, at one time or another, had been 

 attributed to ergot, and associated, on inadequate evidence, v.dth its 

 therapeutic value. The first step, rather, must be to take some 

 characteristic action, which could be regarded as probably the effect of 

 one active constituent, and endeavour to ascertain the nature of that 

 constituent. It would then be possible, if a chemically pure principle 

 were obtainable, to investigate its relation to other types of action, and 

 to search further for other principles, if it became clear that more than 

 one was involved. It seemed natural, at that stage in the history of 

 the drug, to start by examining and further analyzing the action of 

 preparations made according to the methods of Kobert and Jacob] . 

 The results of this preliminary investigation are embodied in the first 

 paper by H. H. Dale, in which a highly characteristic effect on the 

 function of the true sympathetic system is described. All the 

 preparations tested had a potent stimulating action on plain muscle, 

 succeeded by a paralysis of motor sympathetic effects, while the 

 inhibitor actions of the same system were left unaffected. The most 

 readily observed instance of this action was the fall of blood-pressure 

 resulting from injection of the supra-renal active principle, in place of 

 its normal, typical pressure action. It may be noted, in passing, that 

 this so-called " vasomotor reversal " test has been the subject of 

 some criticism by those who have attempted to use it as an indication 

 of ergot-activity in general. It is desirable to make it clear that its 

 originators never claimed for it any value except as a test for a particular 

 active principle, and that it is not surprising that others have failed to 

 find it applicable to extracts owing their activity chiefly to other 

 substances. The search for the substance producing this action was 

 conducted by G. Barger, of the Wellcome Physiological Kesearch 

 Laboratories, working in conjunction with F. H. Carr, of the Wellcome 

 Chemical Works, Dartford, their results being constantly controlled 

 by Dale's physiological experiments. They were soon able to identify 

 the active substance as an alkaloid, closely, resembling Tanret's 



