The fascinating discovery of the electrical system in the heart: A story telling.

Abstract The history of the heart conduction system starts from Harvey, who first observed that right atrium is the origin of cardiac contraction. The subsequent series of discoveries of the origin and conduction of the electrical cardiac impulse followed, oddly enough, a reverse route, from peripheral ramification to the central pace-maker. Purkinje discovered a net of grey, flat, gelatinous fibres in the ventricular sub-endocardium. Then, His discovered of the atrioventricular bundle and Tawara found a node at the origin of the ‘His bundle'. The fundamental aspect was the achievement of the awareness that the atrioventricular node with the bundle of His and the Purkinje fibres were all parts of the conduction system that allowed electrical impulses to spread from the atria to the ventricles. Finally, in 1907, Keith and Flack discovered the sino-atrial node.