Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration.

by Humphry Davy

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press.

"Davy discovered the anesthesia properties of nitrous oxide and suggested its use during surgical operations ..."--Garrison-Morton.
More, is open path to explosives or fertilizers.

ebook

First published January 1, 1800

About the author

Sir Humphry Davy (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was an English chemist and inventor. He is best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry." He was a 1st Baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), and Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS).

A plaque to honour him is on the wall of the Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts in 1854.

A lunar crater (Davy) is named after Sir Humphry Davy. It has a diameter of 34 km and coordinates of 11.8S, 8.1W.

In his hometown of Penzance, Cornwall, a statue of Davy stands in front of the imposing Market House (now owned by Lloyds TSB) at the top of the town's main street Market Jew Street. Nearby is a house on which a commemorative plaque claims the location as the site of his birth.

Penzance also has a secondary school named Humphry Davy School. Similar to James Prescott Joule and Isaac Newton, Davy is also remembered in his hometown by a pub – "The Sir Humphry Davy" at 32 Alverton Street, west of the Market House.

Davy was the subject of the first ever clerihew.

Davy was a founding Fellow of the Zoological Society of London

A satellite of the University of Sheffield at Golden Smithies Lane in Wath upon Dearne (Manvers) was called Humphry Davy House and was home to the School of Nursing and Midwifery, until April 2009.

There is a road, Humphry Davy Way, adjacent to the docks in Bristol named after Sir Humphry Davy.

There is a street named after Sir Humphry Davy (Humphry-Davy-Straße) in the industrial quarter of the town of Cuxhaven, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

The University of Plymouth has named one of its science buildings after the chemist

The Royal Society of London has awarded the Davy Medal annually since 1877 "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry."

Davy is the subject of a humorous song by Richard Gendall, recorded in 1980 by folk-singer Brenda Wootton, each verse of which recalls one of Davy's major discoveries.

English playwright Nick Darke wrote Laughing Gas (2005) a comedy script about the life of Sir Humphry Davy, unfinished at the time of Nick Darke's death; completed posthumously by actor and playwright Carl Grose and produced by the Truro-based production company O-region.

Reviews

[Valentin Chirosca · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1798, Humphry Davy was appointed laboratory superintendent of the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, UK. this was an establishment founded on the belief that the recently discovered gases might have curative applications. Here he set to work on his monumental text on the history, chemistry, physiology and recreational use of nitrous oxide - published in 1800 when he was just 21 years old. Curiously, given the purpose of the Pneumatic Institute, the use of this gas in therapy is barely mentioned: a couple of accounts of its use on paralyzed patients, and that's about the extent. It is at the end of this book that he makes his oft-repeated statement about the possible use of nitrous oxide in surgery: 'As nitrous oxide.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.
Spotting medical potential