Invertebrate anesthesia.

One hundred years ago (January 5th, 1901), an article in the Veterinary Record declared: The use of chloroform by practitioners is now common, and the amount of pain and suffering prevented is enormous. By its aid we are enabled to perform operations with success which without it were seldom satisfactory. A century later, in an age of sophisticated veterinary medicine, those words seem quaint, a relic of a bygone age. Our understanding of anesthesia of invertebrates in 2000 is very much at a comparable stage, however, and a great deal of research is needed to remedy this situation.