The Distribution of the Currents of Action and of Injury Displayed by Heart Muscle and Other Excitable Tissues.

Abstract

This monograph is an important contribution to electrophysiology. The fundamental and comprehensive treatment of the distribution of electric currents resulting from the functional response of excitable tissues renders it of cardinal importance to all those dealing seriously with action potentials, whether in the field of electrocardiography or in other branches of physiology, namely, those dealing with the nervous and muscular systems and the electrical response of glands. The authors analyze the problem of the flow of current in a homogeneous medium, with particular reference to currents of action and injury of the cardiac muscle. It is shown that the observed electrical phenomena can be simply explained on the hypothesis that the wave of excitation in the muscle is accompanied by an electrical source (positive) closely followed by a sink (negative) accompanying the wave of excitation. A second sink followed by a source accompanies the wave of recovery, but inferences and