88 



Scientific Proceedings (73). 



the augmentation of the movements of the intestines observed 

 by Meltzer and Auer must not have been due to a principle 

 peculiar to ergot. "The effect on the intestinal movements," 

 they state, "of a complex fluid such as the liquid extract, con- 

 taining, apart from principles the action of which is peculiar to 

 ergot, choline and various other vascular depressants (ergotoxinic 

 acid, etc.), seems to us to need a more critical analysis before any 

 great importance is attached to it as a specific action." 1 



On account of that statement the behavior of peristalsis was 

 studied by us under the influence of Dale and Barger's specific 

 alkaloid of ergot, ergotoxine. 2 We shall confine our present 

 communication to the results which we have obtained in the 

 experiments on rabbits. The gastrointestinal gut was observed 

 in a trough made by suspension of the incised abdominal wall 

 and kept filled with a warm Ringer solution. The animals 

 received artificial respiration during the entire experimental 

 observation. The results were unmistakable and easily demon- 

 strable. Against Dale and Barger we must insist that augmenting 

 action of their ergotoxine upon peristalsis is very pronounced and 

 constant. It is only indispensable that the animal should not be 

 too deep under the influence of ether, the only narcotic which 

 we have used in the present experiments. A trick which favors 

 further the augmenting action of ergotoxine upon peristalsis is the 

 injection of a warm isotonic solution (0.9) of NaCl into the fundus 

 of the stomach. After intravenous injections of 10 mgr. of 

 ergotoxine, not only the pendular movements and the circular 

 constrictions become greatly intensified, but the contents of the 

 intestines are seen carried down by "peristaltic rush" (Meltzer 

 and Auer) 3 through large parts of the small intestines and even 

 through their entire length from the stomach to the cecum. 

 The movements are followed by a strong constriction of the 

 intestine extending over an inch and longer. Even the empty 

 parts of the intestines of a ribbon-like relaxed appearance show 

 unmistakable contractions after an injection of ergotoxine. The 



1 Biochemical Journal, II, 287, 1907. 



2 It was obtained from Burroughs, Wellcome & Company. The alkaloid is 

 prepared in the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, London, of which 

 H. H. Dale is the director. 



' Amer. Jour, of Physiol., XX, 259, 1907. 



