This monograph considers basic sciences of anesthesia and their clinical application as related to the central nervous system (CNS). Fifteen chapters are subdivided into five parts, covering the anatomy and physiology of the CNS, pharmacology of anesthetics, special techniques used in anesthesia, hypoxia, and some principles of conducting anesthesia for neurosurgery. It serves a useful purpose for reference and review. However, one gets the impression that aspects of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, cerebral circulation, and metabolism cannot be adequately discussed in 150 pages. The part on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics suffers from a lack of discussion on more recent advances in this area. For instance, Fig 22 on page 157 is a calculated uptake curve of anesthetics assuming that the body is homogeneous with uniform tissue perfusion. Experimental data on this subject with considerations on the role of ventilation, perfusion, and solubility of anesthetics in various tissues have been available for some time