Dr. Adriani's "Pharmacology of Anesthetic Drugs," written in 1940, and his "Chemistry of Anesthesia," which appeared in 1945, were enthusiastically acclaimed by students, residents, clinical anesthetists, and teachers in anesthesiology. Those interested in anesthesiology had been beset by more than ordinary frustrations in their efforts to apply the essential principles of the basic sciences to the practices of anesthesia. These frustrations arose largely because there were so few sources in which the anesthesiologist or student could find without tedious effort the pertinent factual data interpolated into principles directly applicable to anesthesiology. These two books satisfied these needs abundantly and authentically.
His latest book, while brightened with some excellent sections, notably that concerning the toxicity of local anesthetic agents in the first chapter, that discussing epidural and caudal anesthesia, and that describing peripheral somatic nerve blocks, is nevertheless generally disappointing. This disappointment stems in part from the improbability of maintaining the