Experiments have been conducted which show that while the tertiary amine oxybutynin has only moderate in vitro anticholinergic and antihistaminic activity, it is a potent inhibitor of barium chloride-induced spasms of rabbit detrusor muscle. Oxybutynin exerts 1/13 the anticholinergic activity of propantheline and 1/4 that of atropine, but produces approximately 2x the inhibition of barium chloride-induced spasm than propantheline and 10x the inhibition produced by atropine. In sum, oxybutynin possesses a notable antispasmodic activity distinct from its anticholinergic activity and stronger than that of atropine, propantheline, or methantheline, which may prove useful in the treatment of smooth muscle hypermotility.