Otto Loewi

Otto Loewi (June 3, 1873 - December 25, 1961) was a German-American pharmacologist. His discovery of acetylcholine helped in enhancing medical therapy and personally earned for him the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine which he shared with Sir Henry Dale.

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According to Loewi, the idea for his key experiment came to him in his sleep. The next day, he dissected out of frogs two beating hearts: one with the vagus nerve which controls heart rate attached, the other heart on its own. Both hearts were bathed in a saline solution (i.e. Ringer's solution). By electrically stimulating the vagus nerve, Loewi made the first heart beat slower. Then, Loewi took some of the liquid bathing the first heart and applied it to the second heart. The application of the liquid made the second heart also beat slower, proving that some soluble chemical released by the vagus nerve was controlling the heart rate. He called the unknown chemical Vagusstuff. It was later found that this chemical corresponded to acetylcholine (Kandel, et al 2000).

June 3: June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining....

1873: 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar)....

December 25: December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining....

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