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Journal of Experimental Biology 59,275-282 (1973)
Published by Company of Biologists 1973

The Circulatory Physiology of Helix Pomatia : I. Observations on the Mechanism by Which Helix Emerges From its Shell and on the Effects of Body Movement on Cardiac Function

BARBARA A. SOMMERVILLE ¹

¹ Department of Pure and Applied Zoology, Leeds

1. Helix uses the muscular floor of the mantle cavity to effect several movements. The contraction and relaxation of these muscles is concerned primarily with filling the lung and absorption of oxygen under pressure. The movement is linked with that of the pneumostome, which is open while the floor is depressed and closed when it is raised. An exaggeration of the breathing movements serves to generate the pressure in the cephalopedal haemocoel, which propels the anterior part of the body out of the shell.

2. The rate and regularity of heart-beat vary during the breathing cycle, being slow and irregular when the pneumostome is closed and fast and regular when it is open.

3. Observation of the intact heart of Helix showed changes in the degree of filling indicating an increased blood flow from the haemocoel to the pulmonary veins and heart when the mantle cavity floor was depressed. The total volume of the heart and pericardial cavity was greater at ventricular diastole than at ventricular systole.

4. When the cardiac nerve was severed a significant but inconsistent relationship between the heart activity and the breathing cycle remained.

5. Helix pomatia, H. aspersa, Archachatina, Monodonta and Anion ater all have a semilunar valve on the common aorta directed so as to prevent blood flowing from the aorta into the ventricle. H. pomatia and H. aspersa have a second semilunar valve in the anterior aorta while in Archachatina the anterior aorta passes through a muscular constriction.