ANESTHESIA 159 



chloroform, etc., with the cell proteids, which results in the limita- 

 tion of the activities of the cerebral protoplasm. Since the com- 

 pounds are unstable, they remain formed only so long as the vapor- 

 pressure of the anesthetic is maintained in the blood, so that nar- 

 cosis ceases soon after the stopping of the administration. They do 

 not doubt but that a certain amount of anesthetic will be taken up 

 by a lipoid in a physical fashion, on account of the great solubility 

 of the anesthetic in the lipoids. But they hold that the portion so 

 taken up and held by the lipoid is passive and not active, and that 

 it is the portion taken up by the proteid which is active in paralyzing 

 the activity of the protoplasm and causing anesthesia. These men 

 also strengthen their theory from the preceding by the fact that the 

 greater amount of fatty tissue in the patient to be anesthetized, the 

 greater is the amount of anesthetic required. They further contend 

 that the portion of the anesthetic retained by lipoid is imprisoned 

 and more anesthetic must be given to raise the " vapor-pressure " of 

 the anesthetic sufficiently to cause a combination between cell proto- 

 plasm and anesthetic with anesthetization as the result. 



The first of these theories assumes that the ether dissolved in the 

 fats and lipoids is the anesthetic part; the other, that this ether is 

 locked up and the anesthetic ether is that which enters into combina- 

 tion with the cell proteids. 



3. Verworn. This theory accepts the Meyer-Overton theory 

 in so far as it shows the necessary properties for an anesthetic to 

 reach the field of action, but Verworn goes further and explains the 

 depression of the activity of the brain cells. He shows that in nar- 

 cosis there is interference with the oxidative processes of the cells or 

 that " the factor which produces the symptom-complex of narcosis is 

 under all circumstances the suppression of the power to carry on 

 oxidation," the supposition being that narcotics render the oxidases 

 (oxygen carriers) in living tissues incapable of carrying oxygen, 

 lie shows that this may take place in any cells of the body, but that 

 the cells of the cerebrum are especially sensitive to a lack of oxygen 

 and are depressed with very much less of the narcotic than is neces- 

 sary to depress the nerves and muscles. 



ANESTHESIA 



When a general anesthetic is administered in sufficient quantity 

 to put the animal in a state of coma, accompanied by relaxation of 

 the muscles, and abolition of all the reflexes, the patient is in a state 

 of complete general anesthesia. Anesthesia may be practically con- 

 sidered in the light of toxicology; and the production of it ^'t really 

 an acute poisoning of the various drugs, the patient being carried 

 through the different degrees of poisoning into a state of narcosis 

 which is just short of collapse. 



