On the augmenting action of ergotoxine (Dale and Barger) on the gastrointestinal movements

About ten years ago Meltzer and Auer 1 reported animal experiments in which intravenous injection of ergot augmented strongly the spontaneous movements of the gastrointestinal canal and increased the motor responsiveness of the canal to vagus stimulation. In these experiments a fluid extract of ergot (U. S. P.) was used. At about the same time Dale and Barger succeeded in isolating from ergot an alkaloid which they named ergotoxine. In their interesting publication on that preparation a year later they ascribed the characteristic physiological effects of ergot to the presence of this alkaloid. With reference to the action upon the gastrointestinal movements they emphatically state that the effect is comparatively slight and inconstant, and believe that the augmentation of the movements of the intestines observed by Meltzer and Auer must not have been due to a principle peculiar to ergot. “The effect on the intestinal movements,” they state, “of a complex fluid such as the liquid extract, containing, apart from principles the action of which is peculiar to ergot, choline and various other vascular depressants (ergotoxinic acid, etc.), seems to us to need a more critical analysis before any great importance is attached to it as a specific action.” 1

On account of that statement the behavior of peristalsis was studied by us under the influence of Dale and Barger's specific alkaloid of ergot, ergotoxine. 2 We shall confine our present communication to the results which we have obtained in the experiments on rabbits. The gastrointestinal gut was observed in a trough made by suspension of the incised abdominal wall and kept filled with a warm Ringer solution. The animals received artificial respiration during the en tire experimental observation. The results were unmistakable and easily demonstrable. Against Dale and Barger we must insist that augmenting action of their ergotoxine upon peristalsis is very pronounced und constant.