SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS 



Abstracts of Communications. 

 Eighty-ninth meeting. 



College of the City of New York, February 20, iqi8. 

 President Gies in the chair. 

 146 (1324) 



On the relation of the chemical structure of the opium alkaloids 

 to their effect on smooth muscle and on the discovery of 

 a new therapeutic agent as a consequence thereof. 



By David I. Macht. 



[From the Pharmacological Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University 

 and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Baltimore.] 



In a paper dealing with the effect of opium alkaloids on the 

 ureter, 1 the author has shown that the opium alkaloids in respect 

 to their action on that organ can be divided sharply into two classes : 

 the pyridin-phenanthrene group, of which morphin is the principal 

 member on the one hand, and the benzyl-isoquinoline group, of 

 which papaverin is the principal representative, on the other. 

 The author showed that morphin and all its derivatives, with the 

 exception of peronin or benzyl-morphin, all stimulate the con- 

 tractions of the ureteral rings and increase their tonicity, while all 

 the members of the papaverin group, namely, papaverin, nar- 

 cotin and narcein inhibit the contractions of the ureter and lower 

 its tonus. 



In a subsequent paper 2 the author further analyzed the action 

 of the opium alkaloids on the ureter and also studied a large num- 

 ber of other alkaloids and chemical compounds allied to them and 

 was led to conclude that, as far as the stimulating action of the 



1 Jour. Pharmacol, and Exp. Therap., 1916, IX, 197. 



2 Jour. Pharmacol, and Exp. Therap., 1917, IX, 287. 



