Fibrillar contraction of the heart.

MacWilliam discovered that fibrillar contraction of the heart is due to “a rapid succession of incoordinated peristaltic contractions.” He clearly described auricular and ventricular fibrillation, and showed that ventricular fibrillation could be caused by the injection of certain poisons into the blood stream. His paper is included, with an account of his life, in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 666-678.