The desirability of quality-assay of ingestable or imbibable material has resulted in an established procedure in advanced countries. Testimony to its necessity was borne by the scandal of chateau-bottled Bordeaux crus classes a few years ago, a litigation instigated by the disillusioned consumers who either on the basis of absence of the expected inebriate state, or of the olfacto-gustatory caress by the bouquet or full-bodied lingering pharyngeal sensation, decided to strike a paranoid attitude, which ultimately proved to be justified. When one proceeds from sheer pleasure to dire...

Every specialist, at present, is confronted with the fact that it is continually becoming more difficult to remain 'up to date'. The areas in which he must read are expanding while the individual publications are becoming greater in number, larger in content and appear more frequently. The choice of the subject was not easy. This time we have selected the pharmacological aspects of anaesthesiology as our main topic, as a continu ation of the Boerhaave course in 1971. Although we know that a drug works, the mechanism behind this action is of great importance. The pharmacokinetics and side...