DAVY, HUMPHRY. - THE DISCOVERY OF THE ANAESTETHIC EFFECTS OF "LAUGHING GAS"

Athembarkeit des sauerstoffhaltigen Stickgas; aus einem Briefe H.Davy's an Will. Nicholson. (+) Nachricht von einigen merkwürdigen Versuchen Davy's. (Aus einem Briefe Humphry Davy's an Will. Nicholson).

Halle, Rengerschen Buchhandlung, 1799, 1800. Without wrappers extracted from "Annalen der Physik. Herausgegeben von Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert", Bd. 2. p. 483 (one page). and Bd. 6, pp. 105-115. Some scattered brownspots.

First German translation of Davy's announcement (the announcement on 1 page) of his discovery of the unusual, anaesthetic, effects of nitrous oxide which, on being inhaled, gave rise to a giddy, intoxicated feeling. On announcing his discovery he says, that he will publish a paper discribing the experiments with the gas, later. This is the paper offered here, also in the first German version. Both the announcement and the paper were issued in the "Annalen" the same year as they appeared in Nicholson's Journal.
The gas was first synthesized by English natural philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley in 1772, who called it phlogisticated nitrous air.

"Following Priestley's discovery, Humphry Davy of the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, England, experimented with the physiological properties of the gas, such as its effects upon respiration. He even administered the gas to visitors to the institute, and after watching the amusing effects on people who inhaled it, coined the term 'laughing gas'! Davy even noted the anaesthetic effects of the gas: "As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place".(Wikipedia).

"Davy discovered the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide and suggested its use during surgiical operations, a suggestion which was not turned to useful account until 1844."(Garrison & Morton, 5646, not mentioning the announcing of its discovery in 1799).

Order-nr.: 44095