Forty-six "first anaesthetics" in the world.

Data about forty-six "first anaesthetics" have been collected from the literature. This makes it possible to get an impression of how fast the news of either anaesthesia spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Most European countries had the news within 4 months and other parts of the world within 9 months.

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogoff.

A short description of the life of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogoff and some of his accomplishments are given. His book on administration of ether for anaesthesia (analgesia) by inhalation and by rectum is of special interest. In this book he also describes his experiments, mainly on dogs, with all kinds of administration.

The introduction of ether anaesthesia in the Nordic countries.

The way in which the news about ether anaesthesia went from U.S.A.

Effect of tubocurarine and decamethonium on voluntary muscle contractions in man.

Six healthy, young male subjects performed repeated brisk maximal voluntary muscle contractions (MVC) with the knee and hip extensors. Three MVCs were performed every minute. On separate days decamethonium 0.

Effect of tubocurarine on human soleus and gastrocnemius muscles.

The effect of a bolus injection of tubocurarine (0.1-0.13 mg X kg-1 i.

The use of epidural analgesia for delivery in a patient with pulmonary hypertension.

In a patients with severe pulmonary hypertension, haemodynamic observations, including cardiac output and pressure measurement in the systemic and the pulmonary circulation, were performed during vaginal delivery under selective segmental epidural block from T9 to L1 combined with bilateral pudendal blocks. No hypotensive episodes were observed in connection with the epidural block, but a gradual increase in the pulmonary pressures was observed during the stages of delivery. After perineal analgesia was achieved with bilateral pudendal blocks, a 2100 g girl with an Apgar score of 9 at 1 min was delivered by vacuum extraction.

Contralateral influence on recruitment of curarized muscle fibres during maximal voluntary extension of the legs.

The force of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) was compared during extension of one leg alone and during simultaneous extension of both legs. In 6 subjects MVC of two legs extension was 75 +/- 3.6 (S.