抄録
1. On the dog small intestine the ganglion cell-containing muscle strip always rhythmically contracted, while the cell-free strip occasionally showed short lasting rhythmical contractions but in most cases remained motionless. And the muscle strip whose nervous elements has been previously destroyed by of the complete anemia method was motionless throughout the experiment lasting for about 3 hours.
2. Physostigmine caused a rise of the intestinal tone superimposed with rhythmic contractions on both the ganglion cell-containing and -free strips, whereas the drug exerted no effect on the strip whose nervous elements were destroyed.
3. The contractions observed in 1) and 2) were completely abolished by atropine. In addition, acetylcholine always exerted an excitatory effect on the motility of all kinds of muscle strips.
4. The evidences were thus obtained that the intramural ganglion cell, not only its cell body but also its axon, might be the site of production of acetylcholine which was responsible for maintaining the intestinal rhythmic contractions. The results thus suggest that the automatic movements of the small intestine may be of a neurogenic origin.
