The first experimental evidence in favour of the theory of humoral transI mission of nerve impulses was Otto Loewi’s classical observation on the vagus and accelerans substances in the frog’s heart (i). It is well known that ideas of this kind had been discussed earlier, and the literature that is often quoted includes work by T. R. Elliott (2), on the possibility of a release of adrenaline from sympathetic nerve endings, and that by Dixon (F.R.S. 1911), on the release of muscarine in the mammalian heart (3). There are, however, even earlier publications: in 1937 Sir Henry Dale read a paper (4) to the Physiological Society entitled: ‘E. Du Bois-Reymond and chemical transmission’. Dale refers to a paper by Du Bois-Reymond (For. Mem. R.S. 1877), in which ideas of chemical transmission were formulated (5). The aim of this essay is to draw attention to two remarkable papers by F. H. Scott (6,7) that have in recent years been rescued from total oblivion. The present writer became aware of these at the occasion of the Royal Society Discussion on ‘Subcellular and Macromolecular Aspects of Synaptic Transmission’, held in 1970. Two of the contributors quoted Scott: A. D. Smith (8) the paper from 1905, and A. Dahlström (9) that from 1906 (7).
Z. M. Bacq, Chemical transmission of nerve impulses. A historical sketch, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1975, 8vo, pp. [xii], 106, illus., £7.00.
