Autonomic Neuro-Effector Systems

Abstract

SEVERAL reviews have been written recently dealing with the chemical transmission of nervous impulses. A monograph has now been published which gives, for the first time, an authoritative exposition of the views of the Harvard School. The authors have both written many papers describing investigations of the properties of adrenergic nerves. They have shown that stimulation of these nerves causes the liberation of at least two different substances. The clear presentation of the evidence for this conclusion forms the most valuable and impressive feature of the book. No one could question the experimental results, but their interpretation is still in doubt. The theory that drugs combine with a special receptive substance in the motor organ provides the only reasonable explanation of the specificity of drug action, but Cannon and Rosen-blueth's theory that this receptive substance is liberated with the drug into the blood stream seems unnecessarily complicated, and has met with opposition. Autonomic Neuro-Effector Systems By Prof. Walter B. Cannon Prof. Arturo Rosenblueth. (Experimental Biology Series.) Pp. xiv + 229. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1937.) 17s. net.