During student presentations the oral communication skills of final year BSc pharmacology students were assessed by their peer group and by a group of academic staff. That there was agreement between staff and peers about the absolute and relative quality achieved in the presentations is indicated by the significant positive correlation between the two sets of marks awarded to individuals and the agreement about which presenters constituted the top and bottom quartiles of the mark list. The standard of presentation achieved by a student was not related to the marks given by that student (i.e. assessment was independent of a student's own communication skills). There was a significant correlation between students" communication skills and their performance in written tests but a number of individuals exhibited marked differences in these two abilities.

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Some of the pharmacological properties of two new compounds, choline 6-thiotheophiyllinate and the choline salt of 3-isobutyl-l-methyl-6-thioxanthine (M&B 5924), are described. Both these 6-thioxanthines are structurally related to theophylline and pharmacologically they are very similar to that compound, the main differences in their actions being essentially quantitative. They were more potent than choline theophyllinate as bronchodilators on the isolated guinea-pig tracheal ring preparation and as coronary dilators on the dog heart-lung preparation. Choline 6-thiotheophyllinate was about as effective as its oxygen analogue in protecting guinea-pigs against the lethal effects of a bronchoconstrictor aerosol; M&B 5924 was more effective in this respect, but the relative bronchodilator activity was much less than on the isolated preparation. Both thioxanthines were less potent than choline theophyllinate as diuretics. One outstanding qualitative difference in their properties was in their effect on the voluntary motor activity of mice; choline theophyllinate in low doses was stimulant whereas the thioxanthines were either inactive at low doses or sedative at higher doses. In dogs, on the other hand, there were indications that M&B 5924 had a stimulant action.In the course of testing some new soluble theophylline derivatives, our colleague Mrs. S. Brazier discovered that the choline salt of 6-thiotheophylline (I, R = -CH3) was about four times as active as its oxygen analogue in relaxing the bronchial muscle of the isolated guinea-pig tracheal ring preparation. 6-Thiotheophylline was also found to be a more potent coronary dilator than theophylline. As a result of these observations, other thioxanthines were synthesized and tested pharmaco-logically in the hope of finding a compound which was highly active as a bronchodilator or as a coronary dilator, and which was well tolerated and absorbed when given orally. The present paper describes some of the pharmacological properties of such a compound, the choline salt of 3-isobutyl-l-methyl-6-thioxanthine, or M&B 5924 [I, R= -CH2.CH(CH3)2].

1In anaesthetized rats electrical stimulation of the intact cervical sympathetic nerve produced frequency-dependent lower eyelid contractions and tachycardia. 2 The tachycardia was caused by excitation of efferent fibres since it was equally evident in the pithed rat preparation, and the right nerve was more effective than the left. By contrast, no differences were seen between the responses to right and left vagal stimulation in either rats or rabbits. 3 Guanethidine inhibited both cardiac and eyelid responses, propranolol only the former and phentolamine only the latter, thereby revealing the adrenergic nature of the nerves. Hexamethonium caused partial inhibition and the block was intensified by atropine. 4 The inferior eyelid of mice, guinea-pigs and rabbits as well as the nictitating membrane of rabbits and cats were contracted by cervical sympathetic nerve stimulation. In these species too, tachycardia occurred; this was more pronounced with the right than the left sympathetic nerve. The order of cardiac responsiveness was mouse > rat > guinea-pig > rabbit > cat.