An anatomical analysis of the effects of ether anesthesia on the nerve cell

Abstract

In this investigation the writer has attempted to ascertain whether or not the anatomical changes produced by ether are similar to those produced by morphine and heat stimulation, namely slight excitation followed by depression. The present experimental work has been devoted to the anatomical changes produced in the Purkinje cell, a most highly differentiated type of nerve cell. It is this type of nerve cell upon which most of the previous work in this laboratory has been done as it is the most suitable of nerve cells for general study. However, the lower primitive cell of spinal or sympathetic ganglia goes through the same sequence of changes as the higher and more differentiated cell of the cerebellum. The only difference is that the higher cell is more easily and quickly exhausted. Therefore, deductions from any single nerve cell may be applied to all nerve cells.