THE RECIPROCAL RHYTHM

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Abstract
In 1913, Mines1described a curious rhythm occurring in the heart of the ray and of the frog after electrical stimulation. This rhythm continued for a considerable period after a single shock, and could be interrupted and abolished by a second stimulus applied either to auricle or ventricle. The mechanism consisted of a sequence of auricular and ventricular contractions, equally spaced and apparently due to an impulse originating in either chamber and transmitted over the usual conduction path to the other, returning again to the first over the same pathway and repeating this process indefinitely. Mines assumed that part of the conduction pathway must have been refractory during the passage of the impulse in one direction, with recovery and transmission in the opposite direction when the second chamber contracted and while the initially active fibers were refractory. A similar mechanism has not been observed in the heart of mammalia, either

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