The flammability and explosibility of many of the more useful anaesthetic agents are properties regarded with apprehension by a large number of anaesthetists and surgeons. Indeed, because of these properties, such an excellent anaesthetic agent as di-ethyl ether may become surrounded by as many taboos as the wooden image worshipped by a savage African tribe. The drama of fire and explosion in the operating theatre is greater than that surrounding an atomic explosion, but the reason for this is that atomic explosions are more frequent and so less wondered at.