Extraction and partial purification of spasmogenic substances in Auerbach's plexus.

A bland procedure, conducted in ice, is described for the extraction with HCl of smooth-muscle-contracting substances from plexus-containing ileal longitudinal muscle (l.m.) sheets obtained mainly from rabbits and some guinea-pigs.

Evidence for a strong non-adrenergic component in the motor transmission to the rabbit vas deferens.

Isolated vas deferens preparations from 16 rabbits of the New Zealand white strain were subjected to electrical and chemical excitability under physiological conditions and under the influence of drugs. Such smooth muscle fibres were strictly confined to the terminal 3 cm. segments of the distal 'urethral' portions of the vasa deferentia.