150 M. R. KING 



definitely located the connection in mammals, describing it as 

 having its origin from the posterior wall of the right atrium and 

 extending to the ventricular septum and there dividing into a 

 right and left branch. In '04 Retzer confirmed and extended 

 this. In '06 the work of His was again entirely confirmed and 

 extended by Tawara who succeeded in tracing the two branches 

 down either side of the ventricular septum and demonstrated 

 how the main branches divided into smaller branches and finally 

 continued into the Purkinje fibres. Since '06 Tawara's work 

 has been confirmed and more or less extended by many observers ; 

 notably, Keith and Flack '07, Fahr '09, Monckeberg '08, Retzer, 

 DeWitt '09 and Lhamon '11. 



Although the attention of these observers was directed mainly 

 to the course and distribution of the connecting link, there is 

 nevertheless ample reference in their work to the constant pres- 

 ence of a connective tissue sheath around the bundle. DeWitt 

 in making reconstructions from dissected specimens, found that 

 she could not remove the sheath without breaking the inclosed 

 strands. Curran probably saw the sheath when he succeeded 

 in inflating a part of it with a blow pipe, but he made the mis- 

 take of confusing it with a synovial bursa which he described. 

 The fullest investigation upon the sheath is that done by Lhamon 

 '12, to which reference will be made later. Lhamon's injec- 

 tions were also subsequently confirmed by C'ohn and Oppen- 

 heimer '11 and by Cohn '13.- 



At this point a word concerning the nomenclature of the 

 bundle is not out of place especially since it has already acquired 

 no less than four different names. Before the time of His, Jr. 

 no definite name was applied to it. The followers of Gaskell 



- Although Dr. Lhamon's paper did not appear till March, 1912, his work was 

 finished and his completed manuscript in my possession by July 22, 1911. He 

 left for the Philippines, where he had accepted a professorial position, in begin- 

 ning of August, 1911. The manuscript as published was sent to this Journal and 

 as shown by the official stamp was accepted for publication on Nov. 3, 1911. 

 Hence Lhamon's priority which has since been privately acknowledged by Dr. 

 Cohn and infercntially also by Dr. Oppenheimer as shown in my statement 

 entitled 'Injections of the bundle of His' is beyond question. See Science, N. S., 

 vol. 42, November, 1915 — A. W. Meyer, 



