CALCIUM IN (JUNCTIONAL) INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION AND A THOUGHT ON ITS BEHAVIOR IN INTRACELLULAR COMMUNICATION *

One of us remembers conversations with Otto Loewi of some twenty years ago. Loewi used to sit in the garden behind the Old Main of Woods Hole, chatting with the novices. Our talks would mostly end on the same note: he would say "Ja Calcium, das ist alles!" No one expects the participants at this symposium to dispute this point. But how could Otto Loewi have been wrong? Among the characters available, calcium, we know now, is so engaging that evolution simply could not help herself bestowing upon it one role after another.