Ueber die Eigenthümlichkeiten der Reizbarkeit, welche die Muskelfasern des Herzens zeigen.

Bowditch was the first to research the relationship between the strength of the heart beat and the interval between beats. He established the “all-or-nothing” principle of heart muscle contraction. He founded, at Harvard, the first physiological laboratory in the United States.

Translated into English by J. Schaefer, W. Deppert, M. I. M Noble, et al as "On the peculiarities of excitability which the fibres of cardiac muscle show," in M.I.M Nobel & W. A. Seed, eds., The Interval-force relationship of the heart: Bowditch revisited, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 3-43.