The histamine receptor of isolated bullfrog gastric mucosa was characterized in terms of respiration and acid secretory responses to histamine antagonists and agonists. Cimetidine, a selective H2-antagonist, showed competitive antagonism of histamine responses with a pA2 value of 6.55. In contrast, the H1-antagonist, mepyramine, showed inhibition only at very high concentrations. Based on these results, the histamine receptor would be classified as the H2 type. Measurements of agonist potency sequence revealed a marked difference between the amphibian and mammalian gastric histamine receptors. The selective H1-agonists, 2-pyridylethylamine and 2-aminoethylthiozol, were found to be more efficacious than the selective H2-agonists, dimaprit and impromidine. The lack of efficacy for dimaprit and impromidine does not appear to be due to a lack of binding to the receptor because these agents inhibit responses to histamine. For dimaprit, the inhibition was found to be competitive with an apparent pA2 value of 5.37. These results indicate that there is a molecular difference between H2-receptors in mammals versus amphibians.