The Physiological Basis of Starling's Law of the Heart -- Contents -- Chairman's introduction -- Introduction: the changing face of the length-tension relation -- Measurements of structural parameters in cardiac muscle -- Discussion -- X-ray diffraction studies on cardiac muscle -- Discussion -- Functional implications of the resting sarcomere length-tension curve in living heart muscle -- Discussion -- Light diffraction of cardiac muscle: sarcomere motion during contraction -- Discussion -- Decreased activation in skeletal muscle fibres at short lengths -- Discussion -- General Discussion I Cross-bridges -- Underlying basis of the length-tension relation -- Force-velocity relation at different muscle lengths -- Tetanized cardiac muscle -- Discussion -- The force-velocity-length-time interrelation of cardiac mus-cle -- Discussion -- General Discussion II Force-velocity relations -- Starling's law of the heart and the geometry of the ventricle -- Discussion -- Direct measurement of ten- sion in the intact heart : diastolic volume-systolic pressure-tension relation -- Discussion -- General Discussion III Sarcomere lengths -- Heart function and the length-tension curve -- Temperature -- Heat production and oxygen consumption -- End-diastolic volume and source impedance of the heart -- Discussion -- Homeometric autoregulation -- Discussion -- General Discussion IV Consequences of stretching a striated muscle fibre -- Shape change -- Pericardium -- Ventricular exchange of information -- Concluding remarks -- Index of contributors -- Subject index.