Abstract
THE mechanism controlling the periodic reversal of the heart-beat in tunicates is still in dispute. Internal control has been thought to exist, and to be due either to local nerve centres1, or to physiologically differentiated areas of cardiac muscle2, at each end of the heart. Evidence from the action of drugs has been conflicting3. Hunter1 found a ring of cells around each end of the heart which he thought to be nerve cells, and Alexandrowicz4 described nerve fibres but was uncertain whether ganglion cells exist.
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References
Hunter, G. W., Anat. Anz., 21 (1902).
von Skramlik, E., Z. vergl. Physiol., 4 (1926).
Bacq, Z. M., Bull. Acad. Belg., Cl. Sci., (5), 20 (1934). Waterman, A. J., Physiol. Zool., 15 (1942); 16 (1943).
Alexandrowicz, J. S., Z. allg. Physiol., 14 (1913).
Lahille, F., “Contributions à l'étude anatomique et taxonomique des Tuniciers” (Toulouse, 1890).
Haywood, C. A., and Moon, H. P., J. Exp. Biol., 27 (1950).
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MILLAR, R. Reversal of the Heart-beat in Tunicates. Nature 170, 851–852 (1952). https://doi.org/10.1038/170851b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/170851b0
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