![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In the previous chapter of "Blue at the Mizzen" there was a mention of Stephen using nitrous oxide, and someone at mandc_read wondered why he didn't make use of it for when he had to pull sailors' teeth if he had access to it, in response to which Feroxargentia posted the following:
From wiki: The first important work of Humphry Davy was examination of nitrous oxide, and the publication of his results in the book: Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800). In that publication, Davy notes the analgesic effect of nitrous oxide at page 465 and its potential to be used for surgical operations at page 556. Despite Davy's discovery that inhalation of nitrous oxide could relieve a conscious person from pain, another 44 years elapsed before doctors attempted to use it for anaesthesia. The use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug at "laughing gas parties", primarily arranged for the British upper class, became an immediate success beginning in 1799.
It shouldn't surprise me that nitrous was used as a recreational drug far earlier than people actually got around to using it to relieve pain, but somehow it does. "Laughing gas parties"? It sounds so modern.
From wiki: The first important work of Humphry Davy was examination of nitrous oxide, and the publication of his results in the book: Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800). In that publication, Davy notes the analgesic effect of nitrous oxide at page 465 and its potential to be used for surgical operations at page 556. Despite Davy's discovery that inhalation of nitrous oxide could relieve a conscious person from pain, another 44 years elapsed before doctors attempted to use it for anaesthesia. The use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug at "laughing gas parties", primarily arranged for the British upper class, became an immediate success beginning in 1799.
It shouldn't surprise me that nitrous was used as a recreational drug far earlier than people actually got around to using it to relieve pain, but somehow it does. "Laughing gas parties"? It sounds so modern.