Nitrous Oxide in the Early 19th Century
When people think of nitrous oxide, which is commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, they tend to think of dentist visits and anesthesia, global warming, souped-up race cars, or perhaps the recreational abuse of the gas. However, in the early 19th century the gas, which has the chemical formula N2O, was used almost exclusively for entertainment. Demonstrations were held to showcase the gas’s effects on human volunteers. William A. Graham’s description of such an event in Philadelphia, as well as a brief account of his own experience with “nitrous oxyd” (1) in Abingdon, VA, provides a historical account of nitrous oxide use, its potential for abuse, and its role as a scientific novelty at the time.
Nitrous oxide was isolated in 1786 by Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the English jack-of-all-trades who also discovered oxygen, but the famous British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) first realized N2O’s anesthetic properties, which were ideal for surgeries. Davy was involved in the first human trials of the gas and may have done several hundred nitrous oxide experiments on himself (2) (3). He also became addicted to N2O, underscoring the gas’s risks. Davy’s recommendations for nitrous oxide’s practical use of “relieving a conscious person from pain” (2) came in 1800. Despite that fact, the powerful and dangerous gas was still treated with lighthearted wonder and reckless experimentation 20 years later in the period detailed by Graham.
In the account given by Graham, 15 student volunteers were given nitrous oxide in a large lecture hall that accommodated a variety of on-lookers, both other students and just curious spectators. The “champion who was to breath the gas” was positioned in the middle of the room and held his nose while “a bladder [was] filled with the exhillerating f[l]uid and applied the cork to the mouth of the individual” (1). This process was repeated for all 15 volunteers. Graham notes being surprised that after only two or three inhalations of the gas, the students seemed drawn to the gas-filled mask and began breathing much more heavily from it.
The author notes that the effects on the participants “were various sudden and truly astonishing” (1). On pages 101-102 of the manuscript, Graham gives the following descriptions of some of the behavior exhibited by those who inhaled nitrous oxide:
Its first and general effect was to make them very polite; first bowing to professor Hare; then to the students, then strutting around the room; then dancing and hollowing — Now attacking the whole house knocking down some and running over others. — Mr. Fountain of Va first became very polite making bows to all those around him and then dancing, the effect lasted about one minute. His pulse was quick frequent and rather corded: his face alternately flushed and pale (1).
Graham goes on to note that Mr. Fountain described feeling ill afterwards but that most of the volunteers felt a very comfortable taper that lasted for a while “after its more violent effects were over” (1).
Graham also states that the gas had no positive effect at all on one of the students, but rather left him “as if he had awakened suddenly from a dream: he looked dejected and mortified” (1). The author describes two other students somewhat differently. One goes about the room making grand gestures like an actor in a tragedy, while the other at first seemed to be enjoying the experience immensely only to get very sick and faint. Eventually, all the participants returned to their normal states.
At the time Graham’s manuscript was written in roughly 1827, demonstrations of this nature at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School were done by chemistry professors. In the one detailed by Graham which took place in February 1819, the professor was Robert Hare, Jr. (1781-1858), who held the position during Graham’s time in Philadelphia (4). Graham described Hare thusly: “His Head resembles the buffaloes; his labour the ox — good chemist, experiments well, but explains badly“ (1). Hare spent almost his entire