[Origins of the rachial administration of cocaine in Spain]

The use of a rachidial pathway for the obtaining of anaesthesia has been the consequence of two events: The discovering of cocaine by Köller and the description made by Corning of the intraspinal passage. If we add to it the attempt to avoid side-effects from ether and chloroform, we find, at the beginning of the century, an enormous increase in the use of the intrarrachidial technique. In the present work, we endeavour to trace the origins of this technique in Spain as well as exposing it and the most outstanding results.