This book is a rewritten edition of a hardcover:  Poison Arrows:  The Amazing Story of How Prozac and Anaesthetics Were Developed from Deadly Jungle Poison Darts (Metro Books, 2005)I had high hopes of this version, which is an attempt, by a retired eminent anaesthetist,  to explain the complexities of anaesthetic paralysing drugs, from crude arrow-poison to (briefly) modern synthetics.

The author gamely attempts to convey concepts requiring at least a basic knowledge of physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry and evolutionary biology, to an unscientific readership, but in the process of dumbing down his knowledge, he has gone too far, resulting in too many statements which are at best misleading shorthand, and at worst simply untrue.

A book on this subject, for the layman, would be welcome, since it's an interesting topic in itself, and also that it's likely that most of us will have at least one experience of anaesthesia during our lifetimes and would presumably like to know what is going on.  Sorry, but I can't recommend this one.

Paperback; 272pp; b/w plates; bibliography