[Discovery of the pacemaker and heart conduction system in mammals. Fantasy and truth].

The first report about experimental investigations on the origin of the rhythms in the mammalian heart were published in 1888 by McWilliam. Similar experiments were described by Hering in several publications starting from 1900. The results led to the hypothesis of the myogenic genesis of the rhythms. However, in 1907, Hering stated that the origin of the stimulus in the mammal heart was probably a nervous function. In 1898, 1903, and 1906 Wenckebach described the function and the functional localization of the pacemaker in the heart of the intact man, and in 1906, he described the morphology of the pacemaker and its blood supply in the post mortem human heart. In the same year, Adam analyzed the localization of the "natural" pacemaker and the regions of the secondary pacemakers in the mammal heart. In 1907, Keith and Flack introduced the term "sino-auricular node". They quoted the findings of Wenckebach and Hering, and they mentioned McWilliam. A muscular connection between the right atrium and both ventricles of the mammal heart was found by Kent and by His in 1893. In 1907, Tawara called the structure of the origin of the a-v connection "atrio-ventricular node". It was, however, the scientific discovery of Tawara that the a-v pathway was connected with the muscles of the ventricles by the Purkinje fibers. He discovered that the pathway consists of muscles which are histologically divided and functionally different from the other heart muscles. It is a system of specialized muscles which conduct the stimulus for the contraction without contracting themselves.