In 1800, Humphry Davy,
then only 21, published “Researches, chemical and philosophical, chiefly
concerning nitrous oxide” while investigating the drug as a member of the
Pneumatic Society at Bristol in Dowry Square.
Towards the end of Davy’s
work is the comment “…” almost a throwaway remark.He does not mention N20 as an anaesthetic
elsewhere.
Description of Davy’s
investigations into N2O, including laughing gas experiments and shows.Conclude with his almost throwaway comment
that the gas could be used in surgery.