The pharmacology of the ethanesulphonate anion.

A method of preparing analytically pure sodium ethanesulphonate, C(2)H(5)SO(3)Na.H(2)O, in quantity is described. Physiological saline solutions were prepared in which a proportion of the sodium chloride normally present was replaced by an equimolar concentration of sodium ethanesulphonate. The effects of partial or total replacement of sodium chloride were examined upon a series of isolated organs, and the guinea-pig ileum preparation was found to be particularly sensitive to the change. Evidence is presented that these low-chloride solutions depolarized the cell membrane of smooth muscle, and that this effect might have been due to an alteration of the chloride ion potential.