552 Mr. J. A. Gunn. The Action of Certain 



sympathetic stimulation or to adrenine by a motor effect when pregnant, but 

 by an inhibitor effect when non-pregnant ; in the latter case, therefore 

 differing from the response of the rabbit's uterus. 



It has recently been shown* that a still different type of sympathetic 

 innervation holds good for the uterus of the rat and the guinea-pig, for in 

 those animals adrenine inhibits the uterine contractions both when the uterus 

 is pregnant as well as when non-pregnant. 



There are, therefore, three known types of predominant sympathetic 

 innervation of the uterus in different species of animals, as shown in the 

 following table : — 





Keaction to Adrenine. 



Non-pregnant uterus. 



Pregnant uterus. 





Motor. 



Motor. 



Cat 



Inhibitor. 



Motor. 



Guinea-pig 



Inhibitor. 



Inhibitor. 



Now the type of innervation in the pregnant uterus of the rat and guinea- 

 pig raises the important question, namely, what is the quality of the 

 sympathetic innervation of the human uterus ? Does it resemble that of the 

 rabbit, that of the cat, or that of the guinea-pig ? This is obviously a question 

 of supreme importance in the use of adrenine or other sympathomimetic 

 substances in human labour, because if the pregnant human uterus is to be 

 relaxed by those drugs (as is the pregnant uterus of the rat or guinea-pig) 

 then the employment of them in inertia uteri or in post-partum haemorrhage 

 is not only valueless but definitely dangerous. 



Though the kindness of Drs. Whitelocke and Dodds-Parker, Surgeons to the 

 Eadcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, I have been able to obtain sufficient material to 

 satisfy at least part of this inquiry. The former gave me the uterus and a 

 Fallopian tube from one case, and Fallopian tubes from two other cases ; and 

 the latter a Fallopian tube from one case. The organs were removed from 

 surgical necessities. As soon as they were removed, they were put into cold 

 Locke's solution and conveyed to the laboratory. There they were put into a 

 bath of Locke's solution, oxygenated and at a temperature of 37°, and the 

 movements recorded, the method employed being the now familiar method 

 used for isolated mammalian organs and first used for the uterus by Kehrer. 



The isolated human Fallopian tube, when put into warm oxygenated saline 

 solution, almost immediately executes rhythmical movements, not in any 



* Gunn and Gunn, ' Journ. of Pharmacol.' (1914). 



