The Relation of the Heart-Beat to Electrolytes and its Bearing on Comparative Physiology

Abstract

An objection often raised to experiments on tissues treated with artificial solutions and isolated from nervous control is that results obtained under such highly abnormal conditions can be of no real value. This criticism arises essentially from a misconception as to the aim of the experiments in question, but it is encountered so frequently that it may not be out of place to consider briefly why it is necessary for the physiologist who would learn something of the more intimate mechanism of the cell to work with tissues under artificial conditions.