...After the "short-acting barbiturates" were introduced in the early 1930s they were often used in large doses as the sole anesthetic, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Perhaps the best known consequences of this type of drug administration are the numerous anesthetic-related deaths of acutely hypovolemic Pearl Harbor casualties, which lead to the description of intravenous anesthesia as an "ideal method of euthanasia".

Michael J. Avram