Editing Humphry Davy (section)

==== Nitrous oxide ====
[[File:James Watt by Carl Frederik von Breda (cropped).jpg|thumb|193x193px|[[James Watt]] in 1792 by [[Carl Frederik von Breda]]]]
[[File:Robert Southey by Peter Vandyke.jpg|thumb|174x174px|Robert Southey]]
[[File:Anaesthesia exhibition, 1946 Wellcome M0009908.jpg|thumb|Sir Humphry Davy's ''Researches chemical and philosophical: chiefly concerning nitrous oxide'' (1800), pp. 556 and 557 (right), outlining potential anaesthetic properties of [[nitrous oxide]] in relieving pain during surgery]]
In 1799, Davy became increasingly well known due to his experiments with the physiological action of some gases, including laughing gas ([[nitrous oxide]]).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hardman|first1=Jonathan G.|title=Oxford Textbook of Anaesthesia|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=529}}</ref> The gas was first synthesised in 1772 by the [[natural philosopher]] and chemist [[Joseph Priestley]], who called it ''dephlogisticated nitrous air'' (see [[phlogiston]]).<ref name="Nitrous Oxide pioneers" >{{cite web
  |url=http://journals.lww.com/anesthesiology/citation/1941/09000/The_Development_of_Anesthesia.8.aspx
  |author=Keys TE
  |title=The Development of Anesthesia
  |work=Anesthesiology journal (Sep. 1941, vol. 2, is. 5, pp. 552–74)
  |year=1941
  |access-date=24 June 2010
|archive-date=12 January 2014
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112122739/http://journals.lww.com/anesthesiology/citation/1941/09000/The_Development_of_Anesthesia.8.aspx
  |url-status=dead
  }}</ref> Priestley described his discovery in the book ''Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1775)'', in which he described how to produce the preparation of "nitrous air diminished", by heating iron filings dampened with [[nitric acid]].<ref name="Joseph Priestley" >{{cite book
  |url=http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/nitrous/nitrous_journal1.shtml
  |author=Priestley J
  |title=Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
  |volume=2
  |at=sec. 3
  |via=Erowid.org
  |year=1776
  |access-date=24 June 2010
|archive-date=12 May 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512190232/https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/nitrous/nitrous_journal1.shtml
  |url-status=live
  }}</ref> In another letter to Giddy, on 10 April, Davy informs him: "I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary it is to repeat experiments. The gaseous oxide of azote (the laughing gas) is perfectly respirable when pure. It is never deleterious but when it contains nitrous gas. I have found a mode of making it pure." He said that he breathed sixteen quarts of it for nearly seven minutes, and that it "absolutely intoxicated me."<ref name="DNB" />

In addition to Davy himself, his enthusiastic experimental subjects included his poet friends [[Robert Southey]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]],<ref name="Jay2014">{{cite journal |last1=Jay |first1=Mike |date=8 August 2014 |title='O, Excellent Air Bag'p: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide |url=http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/08/06/o-excellent-air-bag-humphry-davy-and-nitrous-oxide/ |journal=[[The Public Domain Review]] |publisher=[[Open Knowledge Foundation]] |volume=4 |issue=16 |access-date=6 August 2014 |archive-date=9 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809212454/http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/08/06/o-excellent-air-bag-humphry-davy-and-nitrous-oxide/ |url-status=live }} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="Roberts">{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Jacob |date=2017 |title=High Times |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/high-times |journal=Distillations |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=36–39 |access-date=22 March 2018 |archive-date=8 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408075721/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/high-times |url-status=live }}</ref> as well as Gregory Watt and James Watt, other close friends. James Watt built a portable gas chamber to facilitate Davy's experiments with the inhalation of nitrous oxide. At one point the gas  was combined with wine to judge its efficacy as a cure for [[hangover]] (his laboratory notebook indicated success). The gas was popular among Davy's friends and acquaintances, and he noted that it might be useful for performing surgical operations.<ref>In his 1800 ''Researches, Chemical and Philosophical'' (p. 556), Davy commented: "''As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place.''"</ref> [[Anesthetic]]s were not regularly used in medicine or dentistry until decades after Davy's death.<ref name="AOW" >{{cite book|last=Holmes |first=Richard|title=The Age of Wonder|publisher=Pantheon Books  |year=2008  |isbn=978-0-375-42222-5  |ref=Holmes, 2008, AOW}}</ref>