TOWER 299mechanisms of action of cholinesterase and the anti
cholinesterase agents were just in the process of elucida
tion. The electric eel and the squid were among the earliest
of ‘exotic’ species to prove especially valuable to the neu-
roscientist....[A]xoplasmic flow was known, but its bi
directional transport characteristics were still unknown.
The voltage clamp technique and studies of the details of
axonal conduction were in their infancy...
Isotropic tracers were few and not widely used....The
preparative ultracentrifuge was just coming off the drawing
boards....We knew something about the macromolecular
arrangement of the myelin sheath–one of the first biologi
cal membranes subjected to study by physical techniques
such as X-ray crystallography. But we did not yet understand
the intricacies of its structure or the role of oligodendroglia
or Schwann cells in its genesis and maintenance....
We were beginning to learn about the simple peptide
nature of the posterior pituitary hormones, but we had only
rudimentary appreciation of the role of the hypothalamus
in pituitary hormone control....We knew about inborn
errors of metabolism, but we did not know about enzyme
deletions or attenuations, so that the biochemical lesions
responsible for phenylketonuria (PKU), galactosemia, and
the like were still to be demonstrated....Neuroviruses like
rabies and polio were known, but the polio vaccines were still
experimental and would require the development of tissue
culture for commercial production to become feasible....
In 1950 there were only three really effective anticonvulsant
drugs...[O]nly neostigmine was available for myasthenia
gravis; antibiotics were just beginning to make inroads into
the bacterial infection of the nervous system, with some of
them creating new problems because of their...toxicity...
For all [of the advances since then]...we must credit the
biomedical research and research training effort spearhead
ed by the NIH and contemporary federal and private sector