With different methods and techniques, it was established (1961-1979) that sympathetic ganglia perform, besides the long-known synaptic transmission of central influences to the peripheral organs, a number of other functions, i.e. reflex, integrative-coordinative and receptor (chemosensory) functions. The reflex function, however, has not been found in prevertebral ganglia. The mechanisms of these functions have been analyzed. By this, radical changes are introduced into Langley's concepts of the structural and functional organization of sympathetic ganglia.