Walter Gaskell

Walter Gaskell (Naples, 1847 - 1914) is a physiologist who contributed to the knowledge of the cardiac ways of conduction.

Biography

He studies with the Université of Cambridge before directing himself towards the Physiologie with Michael Foster in Cambridge and Carl Ludwig in Leipzig.

Work

He shows the automation of the isolated cardiac muscle (its capacity to be contracted without external stimulus) whose level varies according to the position of this last in the heart. He notices synchronization between the auricles and the ventricles. In 1882-1883, it is the first artificially to create auriculo-ventricular blocks on hearts isolated by making incisions at various places there. It uses the term of block , this last having been employed before by Georges Romanes, his colleague. It from of deduced the existence from an anatomical structure allowing the transmission of the contraction of the auricles the ventricles, which corresponds to the Faisceau of His individualized later by Wilhelm His. He discovers in 1886 the presence of cardiac fabrics different from the adjacent muscle on the level of the auricle and of the junction between the auricle and the ventricles but does not define their functions of them (respectively sinusal Nœud and Faisceau of His).

Reference

'' Why Does the Happy Heart? The Discovery off the Electrical System off the Heart '', Mr. Silverman, D Grove, C Upshaw, Circulation. 2006; 113: 2775-2781

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