Abstract
Since antiquity, the power of certain organic substances contained in the milky juices of some plants to relieve pain and induce sleep has captured the interest and imagination of doctors and lay people alike. This interest is reflected in the tales of poets from many countries. I will remind you here only of the occasion in the Odyssey when Helen mixes a remedy in the wine of the grieving Telemachus ’… to banish sorrow and hatred and the memory of all pain’; various tales of Boccaccio in the Decameron, e.g. the twenty-eighth story in which an abbot administered a powder to Ferondo that was said to make him sleep for three days and appear as if dead; also, the fortieth tale in the same collection; and finally Act IV, Scene I of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Dastre, A. (1890) Les Anesthésiques. Physiologie et Applications Chirurgicales, Paris, G. Masson, p. 158.
Dubois, R. (1894) Anesthésie Physiologique et ses Applications, George Carrbe, Paris, p. 16.
Bernard, C. (1857) Leçons sur les effets des substances toxiques et medicamenteux, Lesson 22, pp. 334–7.
Overton, E. (1899) Ueber die allgemeinen osmotischen Eigenschaften der Zelle, ihre vermutlichen Ursachen und ihre Bedeutung für die Physiologie. Vierteljahrsschr. Naturforsch. Ges. Zürich, 44, 88–135.
Bert, P. Sur la zone maniable des agents anesthésiques et sur un nouveau procédé de chloroformation. C.R. des Séances et Mém. de la Soc. de Biol.,March 13, 1880, and C.R. des Séances de l’Acad.,Nov. 14, 1881; Méthodes d’anesthésie prolongée par des mélanges dosés d’air et de vapeur. C.R. des Séances et Mém. de la Soc. de Biol.,June 16, 1883; Anesthésie par l’éther. Ibid,Aug. 4, 1883; Application à l’homme de la méthode d’anesthésie chloroformique par les mélanges titres. Ibid.,Dec. 22, 1883 and Jan. 5, 1884; Sur les mélanges titrés d’éther et d’air. Ibid. Mar. 1, 1884; Étude analytique de l’anesthésie par les mélanges titrés de chloroforme et d’air. Ibid.,July 4, 1885; and other studies.
Dastre, A. (1890) Les Anesthésiques: Physiologie et Applications Chirurgicales, G. Masson, Paris, p. 161.
DastreIbid. p. 33.
Overton, E. (1900) Studien über die Aufnahme der Anailinfarben durch die lebende Zelle. Jahrb. fuer Wiss., Botanik, 34, 669–701.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lipnick, R.L. (1991). Background. In: Lipnick, R.L. (eds) Studies of Narcosis. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3096-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3096-7_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5371-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3096-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive