Willy Meyer

THE IMPROVEMENT OF GENERAL ANESTHESIA ON THE BASIS OF SCHLEICH'S PRINCIPLES: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ANESTHOL.

In the writers previous paper1on this subject the principal points brought out were the following: Ether as well as chloroform are poisonous substances. We probably do not go wrong in assuming that one out of every 10,000 patients dies while under the influence of ether and one out of every 2,000 while under that of chloroform. This estimate refers only to cases succumbing on the operating table. Thus there surely is a certain amount of risk involved in every case of general anesthesia, although the exact extent of same can not be determined beforehand in the individual case. It is this element of uncertainty as to the fate of the patient to be narcotized that has prompted many medical men, since the discovery of cocain, to discard general anesthesia as far as possible and try to get along with local cocain anesthesia. Although in the