Litchfield enquirer., 1880-02-19

SIR HUMPHREY DAvY's COURAGE. writer on Sir Humphrey Davy in Temple Bur tells the following stories of his courage; The same moral and physical courage which Davy displayed in his youth by deliberately taking out his pocketknife and'excising part of his leg which had been bitten by mad dog, and cauterizing the wound with his own hands, was exhibited in his chemical Investigations. His discovery that nitrous gas the vapor of aquafortis, is not injurious to health resulted from exeriments on his own life. He obtained the gas in state of purity, and, though very well aware of the danger he ran if the received theory of it's deadly powers was true, which he doubted, he resolved to inhale 1t in it's pure form. Gradually increasing the dose, he ul- timately succeeded in breathing four quarts of the gas from and into a silk bag. He ex- perieaced sense of 'giddiness, accompanied with loss of sensation and volition, state analogous to intexication, attended, as, he says, by highly pleasurable thrilling in the chest and limbs. The objects around became dazzling and my hearing more acute. Tow ard the last inspiration the sense of muscular power became greater. and at last an irresis- tible propensity to action was induiged in. My gesticulations were various and violent In ten minutes had recovered my natural state of mind.'
 And what are we to say of the daring of
 
 again operator and subject. He was curious to know what effect drink would have on a person under the influence of this gas. He drank bottle of wine in about eight minutes. I perceived, says he, a sense of fulness in the head and throbbing of the arteries. lost the power of speech, and was unable to stand steadily. In hour sank into a state of in sensibiIty, in which remained for two hours and half was awakened by severe head ache and nausea, and my bodily and mental debility were excessive. In this state breathed five quarts of gas for a minute and half, but it must have been impure, for it had no effect He then respired twelve quarts of oxygen for nearly four minutes, without any material change in his sensations. The severe headache continuing, he respired seven quarts of quite pure nitrous oxide for two and half minutes. After the third res piration the headache vanished Brilliant ideas passed through his mind. He jumped and danced across the room but languor and depression succeeded, which gradually wore off toward evening. In his treatise Concern ing Nitrous Oxide he records its amusing ef- fects on several of his friends. One of them danced about like a spinning top, and got so pugnacions that he struck at whoever happen ed to be. near him. Its influence on such chos- en souls as COleridge and Southey was by no means brilliant. They jumped and skipped about the room, laughing idiotically, every gleam of intelligence fading from their faces
 "The experiment on himself by which Davy proved that hydrocarbonate acts as sedative was fearfully daring It was no foolhardy bravado that was the motive power with him. but love of scientific investigation. He says he was anxious tocompare tseffects with those of nitrous oxide. Emboldened by a first ex- pertinent, from which he felt no excessively painful results, he introduced four quarts of the gas into a silk bag. After forced ex- haustion of the lungs, and the nose being ac- tually closed he made three breathngs of the hydrocarbonate. The first produced feeling of numbness, the second took away the power of vision and eEfeebled the other senses, the third sent him away into swoon, and just left him power to throw away the tube from his lips. After a short interval he recovered little. and was able to whisper, I do not think shall die Placing his finger on his wrist he found his pulse beating with exces- sive quiekness. In about minute he was able to walk, but for an hour was weak and giddy, and conscious of painful pressue up- on the chest"