Physiological Effects of Condenser Discharges With Application to Tissue Stimulation and Ventricular Defibrillation

The experiments reported in this paper served three major purposes: 1) They defined that property of an electrical discharge upon which the ability to stimulate living tissue depends, in particular the ability to produce a saturation stimulation of the heart. 2) They demonstrated that intense condenser discharges through the chest need not produce any deleterious effects. 3) They showed that one can produce defibrillation of the ventricles of a canine heart, through the closed chest, by such a discharge.