This is a brief review of some of the salient clinical features of halothane and enflurane, the two most widely used volatile anesthetics in clinical practice today. Although, halothane has an excellent safety record and comes close to being the ideal inhalational anesthetic it does have some undesirable effects, including incompatibility with adrenaline and the possibility of causing disturbed hepatic function when given repeatedly. Enflurane is now established as a satisfactory volatile anesthetic which has considerably less metabolic breakdown than many other agents; if this is reflected in terms of minimal organ toxicity it should continue to have considerable clinical value. The risks of damage to the kidney and cerebral irritability are uncommon but undesirable features of enflurane. In the search of the perfect inhalational anesthetic the most promising compounds will be those with least biotransformation, suitable pharmacokinetics with minimal cardiovascular or respiratory depression and without toxic effects on the liver, kidney or foetus.