Abstract
Papper states that the precise neurophysiological disturbance which brings about the anesthetised state is still imperfectly understood despite many years of investigation. The depressing effect of the anesthetic agent on the reticular activating system of the brain stem and the intraneuronal system of the cortex participate to an important degree in the production of anesthesia. | Briggs and co-workers state that as long ago as 1938 the distinguished British pharmacologist A.J. Clark, on reviewing the history of anesthesia, came to the puzzled conclusion that the "progress" he found led to an increase in anesthesia deaths. In their study they found one cardiac arrest for every 4,358 procedures in patients between the ages of 20 and 30, and in patients over 80 years of age the ratio was one cardiac arrest in 219 procedures.