Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1338.5

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY (1778-1829) Researches, chemical and philosophical, chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, or dephlogisticated nitrous air, and its respiration. Printed for J. Johnson… by Biggs & Cottle, Bristol 1800 1st edition. xvi, [2], 580, [2] p., 1 leaf of plates : ill. 24 cm (8vo).

‘Ian Fleming’s copy’ written in pencil on first flyleaf. One of the most important books in the history of anesthesia. “This is one of the most remarkable books in the history of science.” – Fulton & Stanton, The Centennial of Surgical Anesthesia, I.9. “Davy, apprenticed as a surgeon-apothecary, published the above at age 22. Two years earlier, he had experimented with various gases at the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, to determine their medical properties. He discovered that pure nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was respirable and he breathed large quantities of it with exhilarating effects. He observed that ‘it may probably be used with advantage in surgical operations’. Davy recounted (p. 465) the use of the gas in the alleviation of pain in inflamed gums induced by the eruption of a wisdom tooth, but more than 40 years passed before it or any other anesthesia was practically demonstrated.” – Dibner, Heralds of Science, 128.

Cited references: Garrison & Morton 5646; Waller 11113; Osler 1382; Wellcome II p. 436; Cushing D78

John Martin M.D. Endowment