In a series of papers published in 1952, A.L. Hodgkin and A.F. Huxley presented the results of a series of experiments in which they investigated the flow of electric current through the surface membrane of the giant nerve fibre of a squid. In the summary paper of the Hodgkin and Huxley model, the authors developed a mathematical description of the behaviour of the membrane based upon these experiments, which accounts for the conduction and excitation of the fibre. The form of this description has been used as the basis for almost all other ionic current models of excitable tissues, including Purkinje fibres and cardiac atrial and ventricular muscle.