The action of certain quarternary ammonium bases / by J.H. Burn and H.H. Dale.

  • Burn, J. H.
Date:
[1914?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The action of certain quarternary ammonium bases / by J.H. Burn and H.H. Dale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Vol. VI, No. 4, March, 1915 THE ACTION OF CERTAIN QUARTERNARY AMMONIUM BASES J. H. BURN and H. H. DALE From the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, Brockwell Hall, Herne Hill, London, S. E. Received for publication September 25, 1914 The possession by quaternary ammonium-bases of a “curare” action, originally indicated by Crum-Brown and Fraser,1 has become one of the commonplaces of pharmacology. From time to time indications of other types of action have appeared. In particular a number of such compounds have been shown to possess an action of the “muscarine’* type; muscarine itself, indeed, being in all likelihood a quaternary base. It is to be noted, however, that all the substances, in which this latter action has been described, have three methyl groups attached to the nitrogen atom, the fourth grouping being usually more com¬ plex, as in the case of the various choline esters and ethers recently examined by one of us,2 or the isoamyl- and hexyl- trimethyl- amines examined by Jordan.3 Jacobj and Hagenberg,4 however, showed that the tetramethyl ammonium salts have also a mus- carine-like action on the frog’s heart, and that, in the frog and mammal, they produce an intoxication in which both muscarine and curare effects can be recognized. The corresponding tetra¬ ethyl compounds had no such action; they produced muscular tremors in the frog, but neither curare nor muscarine-action could be detected in the mammal. This curious difference between the actions of the tetramethyl- and tetraethylammonium salts appears again in the recent work 1 Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vi, p. 556, 1869. 2 Journ. of Pharm. and Exp. Therap., vi, p. 147, 1914. 3 Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., viii, p. 15, 1877. 4 Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm.. xlviii, p. 48, 1902.