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Although stimulation of adrenergic nerves or adrenal chromaffin cells causes the release of catecholamines, in many cases it does not cause a decrease in the catecholamine content of these cells. One of the first reports of this phenomenon was made by TR Elliot (1912) in a study designed to establish whether the release of catecholamines by the adrenal medulla was controlled by the splanchnic nerves. Although Elliot obtained con siderable data supporting this view, he also found that prolonged electrical stimulation of the splanchnic nerves did not produce a pronounced depletion of the content of adrenal catecholamines. In fact, Elliot wrote," so slight is the change in the residual adrenalin caused by faradisation of the splanchnic nerves, that it would never have sufficed to convince me of the existence of the splanchnic control." Holland & Schumann (1956) later extended these findings by measuring directly the amount of catechol amines released during splanchnic nerve stimulation and the content of catecholamines in the adrenal gland before and after the stimulation. They observed that the output of catecholamines into the blood stream