Verney's Concept of the Osmoreceptor

Abstract

Verney¹ntroduced the term "osmoreceptors" in his Croonian lecture of 1947. He also described their physiologic role, localized their site in the brain, and speculated upon their structure. The osmoreceptors, according to Verney, were "descriptive of the autonomic receptive elements with which the neurohypophysis is functionally linked." He envisioned their role as monitors of the blood osmolarity and as effecting an appropriate release of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) so that ... its [ADH] liberation is mainly and continually governed by the contemporary concentration of sodium chloride in the carotid arterial plasma. The physiological fitness of this control is emphasized by its quantitive aspects, in that changes within the range and of the order of 1 per cent in the osmotic pressure of the arterial blood lead, through the intermediation of the antidiuretic hormone, to changes in the rate of water excretion within the range and of the order of 1,000 per