An unusual type of sympathetic ganglionic stimulant

The work of Dale in 1914 to a great extent characterized the action of acetyicholine. This investigator classified the actions of this sub-stance and related choline esters as being of two types, “... the depressor, cardioinhibitor ‘mus-carine ’ type of action, unaltered by nicotine, but abolished by atropine, and a pressor action of the nicotine type, unaffected by atropine, but abolished by large (loses of nicotine.” This simple classification was rapidly and fully endorsed by pharmacologists, largely be-cause only a few, if any, inconsistencies could be found with the above tenets of Dale. Further-more, as new compounds which affected autonomic function were synthesized they usually could be neatly classified as belonging to one, the other, or both of the categories described by this investigator. In the course of a routine examination of compounds of diverse chemical structure for cardiovascular and autonomic activity, it was found that one substance, the structure of which is given below, produced unusual autonomic effects in animals and could not be readily cate-gorized and identified as belonging to a known group of pharmacological substances acting along some portion of the autonomic nervous system