Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-02-05
A Great Scientists Courage.

A writer on Sir Humphrey Davy in
Temple Bar tells the following stories of
his courage: 1.-THE same moral and ply
steal courage which Davy displayed in
his youth by deliberately taking out his
pocketknifn and pXcising a part of his
leg which mad been piLten W il mad
dog, and cauterizing the wound with his
own hands, was exhibited in his chemi-
cal Investigations His discovery that
nitrous gas. the vapor of aquafortis, is
not injurious to health resulted from
experiments on his own life. He OBJ
tanned the gas in a state of purity, and.
though very well aware of the danger
he ran if the received theory of its
deadly powers were true, which he
doubted. he resolved to inhale it in its
pure form. Gradually increasing the
dose. he ultimately succeeded in breath
ing four quarts of the gas from and into
q silk bag. He experienced sense of
giddiness, accompanied with loss OF
sensation and volition, state analogous
to .intoxication, attended as he says,
by highly pleasurable thrilling in the
chest and limbs. The objects around
became dazzling and my hearing acute.
Toward the last inspiration the sense of
muscular power became greater, and at
last an irresistible propensity to action
was INDUCED in. My gesticulations
were various and violent. In ten min
utes / had recovered my natural state of
mind M
.And what are we to say of the dar-
ing of the following experiment at
which he was again operator and sub
iect. 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 'Ipereeived says he, a sense
of fullness in the head and throbbing of
the arteries. l lost the power of speech,
| and was unable to stand steadily. In
an hour / sank into state of insensi-
bility, in which remained for two
hours and half. / was awakened by
severe headache and nausea, and my
bedily and mental debility were exces-
sive. In this state breathed tive 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, with
out any material change in his sensa-
tions. The severe headache continuing,
he respired seven quarts of quite pure
nitrous oxide for two and ahalf
After the third respiration the head
ache vanished. Brilliant ideas passed
through his mind. He jumped and
danced across the room; but languor
and depression succeeded, which gradu-
ally wore off toward evening. In his
treatise Concerning Nitrous Oxide
he records its amusing effects ON several
of his friends. One of them danced
about like spinning top, and got so
pugnacious that he struck at whoever
happened to be near him. Its influence
on such chosen souls as Coleridge and
So they was by no means brilliant.
They jumped and skipped about the
room, laughing idiotically, every CLEAN
of intelligence fading from their faces.
The experiment on himselfby which
Davy proved that hydrocar Donate acts
az a sedative was tearfully daring. 1t
was no foolhardy bravado that was the
motive power with him. but love of
scientific investigation. He says he
was anxious to compare its effects with
those of nitrous oxide. Emboldened
by a first experiment, from which he
felt no excessively painful results, he
introduced four quarts of the gas into
a silk bag. After forced exhaustion
of the lungs, and the nose being accu-
rately closed, he made three breathiRgs
of the hydrocarbonate. The first pro-
|. duced feeling of fnumbness. the second
took away the power of vision and en-
feebled the other senses, the third sent
him away in aswoon, a and just left him
power to throw away the tube from his
lips After short interval lie re-
covered a little, and was able to wfiis-
per, / do not think shall die.' Plac-
ing his finger on his wrist he found his
pulse beating with excessive quickness.
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