The material contained in this book was presented at the Boerhaave Course which was held in Leiden, The Netherlands, on May 2 and 3, 1977. It deals with three topics of considerably recent interest, not only to cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons, but also to embryologists, anatomists and pathologists. Papers on the development and the normal anatomy of the conduction system include a discussion of the continuing controversy as to whether dis- crete and anatomically distinct internodal pathways exist in the human heart. These are followed by descriptions of the abnormal anatomy and...