Matti Harkonen Herman Adlercreutz

swelling or expressed a preference for this posture. I do, however, maintain the lower limbs in the horizontal position. A patient can just as readily faint in the horizontal as in the sitting position. Some time ago I had a young, healthy female patient who, while in the supine position, fainted following the insertion of the intravenous needle before any methohexitone had been injected. She became unconscious, with marked pallor, a moist skin, and bradycardia. She did not regain consciousness until she was tilted into the Trendelenburg position and pure oxygen was administered. She wnas subsequently anaesthetized uneventfully. The important t;hing is to recognize a faint immediately, whatever position the patient is in, and to treat it expeditiously.-I am, etc.,