ON THE COVER:
Claude Bernard, best known for the concept of homeostasis in physiology, was also fascinated with anesthesia and its implications. As wonderfully described in a special article and editorial, Claude Bernard's concepts that only living beings, including plants, could be anesthetized and that there are many anesthetic drugs but only one anesthetic state lay the foundation for our exploration of the mechanisms of anesthetic action. The image of Claude Bernard is courtesy of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Park Ridge, Illinois. Parallel arrangement of an experiment for mammal and plant reproduced from Bernard C: Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie commun aux animaux et aux végétaux, Librairie J-B Baillière et Fils, 1878. Available in the public domain at http://books.google.com/.
Ginosar and Binshtok: Mechanisms in Anesthesia and Analgesia: Convention, Crisis, and the Shoulders of Giants, p. 451
Perouansky: The Quest for a Unified Model of Anesthetic Action: A Century in Claude Bernard's Shadow, p. 465
