Phosphorus and fluorine NMR examination of the anesthetized newt (Notopthalamus viridescens).

We have examined newts by 19F-NMR using the anesthetic halothane as a probe and in another set of experiments taken 31P-NMR spectra under similar conditions. The spectra were recorded from the animal's tail. The water soluble 31P-NMR signals point to little difference between anesthetized and unanesthetized newts except for the potential disappearance of two pools of inorganic phosphate in the anesthetized animals. The 19F spectra show two anesthetic populations in the tail which the phosphorus spectra suggest arise from populations of halothane in muscle and in lipid.