WEBVTT - How Nitrous Oxide Works 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:15.520 dot com. Won wa hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.840 I'm Josh Clark Wal There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant Wall, 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.360 and there's Jerry And this is stuff you should wall 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:28.800 Wall Wall Wall the podcast you're making. I'm giggling like 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.200 a schoolgirl. You're making a I think I just topped 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.599 to school girl. One echo e reverbi uh sound. So 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.080 this could only be about one thing. Nature's ox siden 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.440 that's right, and two oh, that's right. Hippie Crack, the 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:49.400 Bitter Mistress, Whippets, jazz Juice, Yeah, why not? I mean 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.920 those are the street names that has medical efforts. Some 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.040 of those are made up. Yeah, we're gonna cover the 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.280 whole gamut here. Yeah, medical use and recreational use dangers. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.120 We're gonna do an episode on nitrous ox side. That's right. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.800 Um so, Chuck, we should probably start not at the beginning, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.119 but not at the end, somewhere in the middle, because 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.959 the history of nitrous ox side is extraordinarily interesting. Just 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.399 the history. Yeah, we're gonna tell it out of order 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.640 like pulp fiction. That's right. See if you can recognize 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:27.600 characters from other movies like Vincent vegas brother. Yeah, Michael 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.720 Madison was Vincent Vega's brother. Did you know that? Yeah, oh, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.720 you knew that. I did. Well. Well, I don't think 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.040 that's not most heavily guarded secrets. Did you notice that 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.720 red Apple cigarettes make an appearance in more than just 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.120 pulp ficture? I'm done. Did you notice that Quentin Tarantino 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.120 likes to write two hundred and seventy five page scripts. Yeah, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.080 but that's nothing compared to the five hundred and eighty 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:55.440 page tone that Humphrey Davy wrote on nitros ox side. 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:57.680 Very nice little segue. All right, So we're not even 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.800 talking about Humphrey Davy yet, he's at the beginning. He's 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:01.559 not even at the beginning, but he's towards the beginning. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.600 We're gonna talk instead about the sad saga of one 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.560 Dr Horace Wells d d S very sad. Yeah. So 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.320 Dr Horace Wells was a dentist in New Haven, Connecticut. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:16.560 I believe in the eighteen forties. What is dds is 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:20.000 that Dennis Dennis Cee? Is that what that means? That's 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.720 what I've always assumed it was. And at this point 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.680 everyone knows. We just make most of the stuff we 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.760 stay up. That's right. Uh, so you're right, sir. He 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.480 was a dentist in Hotford, Connecticut. It was Hartford, I said, 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.079 new Haven. Uh what's the difference, as long as the 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:38.320 thing Connecticut. And this was in the eighteen thirties and uh, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.280 oh man really yeah, maybe we should start over. Wow 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.639 wow wow, all right. Uh. He was a dnnist in 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.400 the eighteen thirties, and he recognized something that all dennist 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.080 of the day recognized, which is, everyone hates your guts 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:59.000 because you're causing excruciating amounts of pain on a daily 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.480 basis to your patients. Yeah. It's it's like, here's some whiskey, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.880 Maybe bite on this broomstick. Well, actually can't do that 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.839 because you're doing dynastry. You can't even do that. Yeah, 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.320 you ever heard the term it's like pulling teeth. That's 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.200 where it comes from, right, And and so Horace wells 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:19.160 dds dentist. Dentist. See. Uh. He felt pretty bad about 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.519 this enough so that um he went to a traveling 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.679 exhibition once that came through town. And this was in 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.280 the eighteen forties, and it was staged by a man 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.280 named h A. Gardener Colton. That's a great name, Gardner 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.960 Quincy Colton sounds like a rich kid from Texas or yeah, 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.200 or like a side show showman, which is what he was, right. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.320 And he actually was in medical school for a little while. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.800 And while he was in med school he was introduced 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.600 to the wonders of huffing nitrous oxide. And he said, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.960 I'm not gonna do medical school anymore. I's gonna drop 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.880 out and hit the road with the old hippie crack. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.400 Yeah exactly, and show people what's what. And so at 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:04.600 one of these inmonstrations in Hartford and sometime in the forties, um, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.600 he saw Colton give this demo and and I guess 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.800 right afterwards, saw a man run into the stage or 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.880 fell off the stage and hurt his leg, and Wells 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.240 went over. I was like, are you okay? And the 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.520 guys like, what are you talking about? And he said 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.840 the bonus sticking out of your legs, sir, And he's like, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.960 what's the bone? Now? It wasn't that bad, but he 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.159 did say interesting, Um, here's what I'll do. I'll get 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.760 Colton to come into my office tomorrow and my buddy 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.240 colleague John Riggs, I'll get Colton to administer the gas, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.520 and I'll get Rigs to pull one of my teeth, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.200 and uh, he did so, and he said, I did 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.200 not feel so much as the prick of a pin. 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.080 And he said, I think we're onto something here, something 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:52.400 called pain free dentistry a k a. Please stop painting me, right, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.839 And so Wells followed in this really great tradition that 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.000 really stopped and I guess probably about the twentieth century 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.160 of the late twentieth century of where if you're a scientist, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.680 you or your own first human test subject. People still 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.960 do that. Yeah, apparently in um in Marvel Comics they do. 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.719 One of the greatest articles I've ever read in any 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.360 magazine anywhere in all time throughout the universe in perpetuity 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.080 is called blood Spore, and it was about the murder 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:26.920 of a mycologist scientists who studies mushrooms, and um it's 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.520 really really interesting. There's all sorts of weird like cold 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.080 case stuff to it, but there's also like an under 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.360 underlying thread where if you're a mycologist and you discover 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.279 a mushroom, you try it out on yourself, Like that's 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.680 just what they do still today. I think that you 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.880 try it on yourself after you fed it to your children, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.120 just to see what happens. Maybe your dog first, and 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.560 then you try it on you. Man. I'll bet those 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.680 those mycologist dogs were bandanas then are super laid back. 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.880 You know. Uh, what's the name of the article? I 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.680 want to check that blood spore is in Harper's which 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.039 means it's behind a paywall. But gotcha, it's It's almost 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.320 worth a year's subscription just for that one. And Harper's 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:12.120 archives are definitely full of good articles, agreed. So Wells 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.880 was pretty happy because he knew he was onto something there. 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:20.240 And he said he performed um, just dental procedures for 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.240 the next uh a few weeks and months on dozens 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.239 of patients, and they were all like, this is great, 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.400 it's great. Didn't feel a thing, doc, And he said, 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.800 I think I'm ready. I wanna present this to some 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.680 Harvard medical students in the establishment. And he got on 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.719 stage and uh, he went to pull a tooth and 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.919 the guy started screaming. Yeah. So like after all of 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.479 these tests, successful tests, when he finally gets up the 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.919 gumpchen to give a successful demonstration, it goes as bad 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.280 as it could and it's actually called the Humbug affair 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.919 because the medical students shouted humbug and what was the 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.480 other swindler at him, and he's like, no, I'm not, 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.520 I'm not, and I swear this is for real, I 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.000 really care about my patients. In the room started spinning 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.039 and he fell over and when he came to, he 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:10.240 was on skid row, hooked on chloroform and nitrous oxide. Yeah. 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.440 He later went on to say that, um, although wait, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.040 let me let me clarify, you technically can't get hooked 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.600 on nitrous ox side, but he was huffing a lot 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.600 of nitrous oxide, right. Uh. Well, although, Davy, well we'll 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.000 get to that be a spoiler. He went on to 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.520 say that he thought that he had probably withdrawn too 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.440 much too soon from the guy, because, as we'll go 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.960 on to talk about here in a little bit, um, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.600 when you stopped breathing in nitris, you go back to 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.600 normal pretty quickly, very quickly. So he kind of just aired. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.080 I don't know, I would have gone a little bit 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.760 overboard for the demo. Sure, on the same side, I 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.440 would have been like ninety night pal, but um, yeah, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:52.040 he he became well, like you said, not hooked, but 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.800 a heavy user of ether and chloroform. Oh yes, ether 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.920 um in the on his thirty third birthday, he was 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.480 I think awaiting arrival of his He ended up living alone, 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.240 moved and was waiting on his wife and kid to 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:08.760 come to London. But by this time he'd sunk into 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:13.040 like a terrible depression, right and uh, he was alone 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.320 because his family wasn't able to join him yet. And 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.440 he flipped out on his thirty third birthday, went out 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.400 on the street and throw acid on these two women. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.960 Flipped out after going on like a chloroform vendor. Yeah, 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.200 and went to prison, and in prison he sort of reached. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.960 He kept doing chloroform and ether in prison because I 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:35.800 guess you could get it and hit rock bottom and 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.040 under an ether, Binge slashed his femoral artery in his 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.720 thigh died. Well. Yeah, he talked to the guard into 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.640 escorting him home to get his shaving kit. And at 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:49.960 home it's like I need a big razor. I think 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.720 at home or maybe back. If he's getting chloroform in prison, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.000 it could have been there. He huffed the dose of 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:59.120 chloroform to anesthetize himself and then he cut his femoral 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.200 artery to the end. He was a believer in anesthesia, 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.520 I guess so. However, um years later, in eighteen sixty four, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.880 he was he was recognized by the ADA, the American 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:17.880 Dental Association as a pioneer of using uh not ether 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:22.680 But what are we talking about? Two in dentistry in two? Oh? Yeah, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.760 And do you know who got him to that point? Well, yeah, 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:32.040 Gardner Colton's He set up practice as a dentist, after all, 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.120 and it was his successful demonstrations that got the a 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.880 DA on board. So now we need to go back 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.640 in time. Yeah, even further back. That's sort of the middle. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:46.400 So we're in the way back machine. I guess we 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.240 didn't point out where we're in there already. I think 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.120 everyone just assumed. And we go back seventy years previous 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:59.600 to Horace Wells, to a guy named Jason Priestley. Dylan, sorry, no, Brandon, 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:05.840 Joseph Priestley, that guy Jason Priestly's dad, Yeah, or great great, great, great, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.840 great great great grandfather. I don't think there was any relation. Actually, 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:14.839 you don't know, you're right. Joseph Priestly. He was an Englishman, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.160 and he begins like Priestley, that's right. And he was 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.000 a big he was an enlightened thinker, and he was 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.079 a contemporary Ben Franklin, and he was a smart guy 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.080 on a lot of different subjects. He was a polyglot. Yeah, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.560 that's a good word for it. Cool guy. And no, 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.120 I'm sorry, he's a poly math. A polyglot as somebody 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.600 speaks a bunch of different languages. Poly math is somebody 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.200 who's in a bunch of different fields. Yeah. Probably. He 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.400 was an enlightenment guy for sure. Uh. And in the 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.280 seventeen seventies he was studying a love I think we 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.800 should go back to using only old terminology because what 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.320 they called gases back then was the study of the airs, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:00.480 which is great, totally makes sense. Gasses and to shoot 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.520 a duck. And he actually lived next to a brewery, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.000 so he had a lot of access to CEO two 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:12.080 and very smartly created a device called the pneumatic trough 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.679 to isolate gases, collect and isolate these gases, and he 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.640 was good at it so well. A guy named Steven 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.720 Hales actually created the first pneumatic trough, which is actually 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.960 pretty simple invention. It's neat though, so like you have 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.400 a tube Let's say you have a fire and you 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.240 want to collect carbon monoxide from it. You basically have 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.240 a tube that collects it the smoke that's coming off 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.720 of it, and the tube goes into a vat of 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.000 water and up into a like a glass bell jar 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.080 that's upside down. It's inverted so that there's there's air 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.800 at the top. I think the principle is similar. And 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.640 so the smoke goes into the water and then goes 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.640 up and is filtered through the water. And what the 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.000 gas you have on the other end is whatever you're 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.400 looking for, or a bunch of different gases that you 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.560 can study and pure form, simple, pistically beautiful. It is 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.640 so um priestly had his own that he made the 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:10.240 pneumatic trough. And this guy actually isolated eight different gases 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.360 or airs for the first time, which apparently is a record. Still, yeah, 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:16.520 I don't know what the record is, like most gases 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.880 discovered in a single lifetime. Okay, I guess all right, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.320 that's good it is. I don't know that there's any 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.200 more gases to discover. I wonder, and who studies that 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.680 kind of thing? What do you call somebody who studies gases? 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:36.200 An Arologists analysis. Well, if you do that right into us, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.120 because I want to know all about that and if 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.160 there's if you guys think there's any gases left to 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.280 be discovered here on earth. Agreed. Alright, let's take a 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.440 break before we talk about Humphrey Davy because he's this 0:12:47.520 --> 0:13:08.000 is where the story gets really good. That was quite 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.080 a break. Yeah, I can't believe you broke that lamp. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:17.920 That was upset, all right, Humphrey Davy. Uh, he worked 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.520 at a place called the Neumatic Institute, and they used 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:28.120 gases as for therapy, curative therapies, and he got into 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.280 using them on himself, which, like you said, was sort 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.400 of the thing to do at the time, you experiment 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.480 on yourself, right. Plus, as the author of this Rolling 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:39.360 Stone article from n that I read pointed out, Yeah, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.880 he was also like twenty at the time, so it 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.520 totally makes sense that he would like half a bunch 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.319 of nitrous ocksides and then and call it science, right, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.760 But he I mean, it really was science. So this 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.120 guy apparently had tried it a few times before, but 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.120 then his big experiment, his first huge experiment was on 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.160 Boxing Day of seventeen nine d nine, right, which is 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:07.400 December it's very important that you remember December. Why is 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.400 it important, Well, it was boxing Day, but it was 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.800 also literally box day because Humphrey Davy got into a 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.560 box and had some guy pump in. Was it like 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.520 twenty courts? Yeah, he's he stepped into a seal box 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:26.760 and he requested a physician, like a real doctor, to 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.640 release twenty courts because otherwise it just be crazy. Right, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.160 He released twenty quarts of nitrous oxide every five minutes 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.560 as long as I'm conscious. That must have been the 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.760 safe word is I'm passed out. And he went for 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.840 an hour and fifteen minutes like that in this box, 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.680 and then he stepped out and apparently grabbed some oil 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.840 skins or also called gas bags, and um huffed another 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.440 twenty courts right afterward. And they're like, how are you 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.720 still standing? And he goes, I'm not i' he basically did. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.120 He had a great disposition to laugh, which eventually is 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.520 where laughing gas would come from. Uh. He talked about 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.360 shining packets of light and energy. He talked about objects 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.680 dazzling in their intensity and sounds amplified into a cacophony 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.600 that echoed through infinite space, and losing all connection to 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.560 external things. It's pretty cool. So we there's this really 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.760 great article on the public domain review and it's called 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:32.240 oh excellent, gas bag, gas bag or airbag, airbag, air bag, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.360 I'm sorry, which is a quote from a poet that 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.880 was friends with Humphrey Debut, who became the Poet Laureate 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:43.320 of Great Britain. Later on Um and the the Um, 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.720 the author really does a good job of describing what 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:53.440 nitrous oxide does to you, almost suspiciously good. So um. 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.560 They say that the first signature was it's curiously benign 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.840 sweet taste, followed by a general pressure in the head 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.320 as he continued to inhale. Within thirty seconds, the sensation 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.440 of soft, probing pressure had extended to his chest and 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.160 the tips of his fingers and toes. This was accompanied 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.840 by a vibrant burst of pleasure and a gradual change 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.000 in the world around him. Objects became brighter and clearer, 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.360 and the space in the cramped box seemed to expand 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.160 and take on unfamiliar dimensions. Now under the influence of 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.400 the largest dose of nitrous oxide anyone had ever taken, 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.680 these effects were intensified to levels he could not have imagined. 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:32.120 Should I keep going sure, do you want to do 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.280 you want to take over? I think it's better when 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:40.120 we break it, Okay. His hearing became fantastically acute, allowing 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.000 him to distinguish every sound in the room, and seemingly 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.200 from far beyond, a vast distant hump wah wah wah wah, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.720 perhaps the vibration of the universe itself. In his field 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.320 of vision. The objects around him were teasing themselves apart 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.440 into shining packets of light and energy. He was rising 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.440 effortlessly in a new world whose existence he had never suspected. Somehow, 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.600 the whole experience was irresistibly funny. So Robert Southey, his 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.239 buddy you mentioned the future poet laureate. He brought him in. 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.720 Afterward he was like, I gotta get some more people 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.960 in on this fantastic I gotta share this. Yeah, that's 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.679 what you do. So he brought in Southey, got him high, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.600 and he wrote his brother Tom a letter that said, 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.600 oh Tom, exclamation point, such a gas. As Davy discovered 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:32.040 the gaseous oxid, Oh Tom again, exclamation point, I have 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.080 had some. It made me laugh and tingle in every 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.360 toe and fingertip. Davy has actually invented a new pleasure 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.560 for which language has no name. Oh Tom, I am 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.399 going for more this evening. It makes one strong and 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:50.000 so happy, so gloriously happy. Oh excellent air bag exclamation point. 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.639 Pretty great stuff, no wonder So in the summer of 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.120 after they closed the shop down the Pneumatic Institution, during 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.840 the day, he would invite surgeons and playwrights and poets 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.160 and chemists and anyone who was interested who we could 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:09.520 get the word to to come in there and huff 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.399 nitrius um. I was about to say under the guise 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.479 of experimentation, but it really was because he would he 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.840 learned that he was really finding that there were it 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.040 was a language experiment because no one could accurately describe 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.440 what they were feeling with English words right exactly they 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:30.880 He found that very strange and insignificant that people would 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.640 just come out and just couldn't put it into into 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.840 words their experience. I mean, it was a brand new sensation, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.520 there was um. One guy, James Thompson said, we must 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.119 either invent new terms to express these new and peculiar sensations, 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.959 or attach new ideas to old ones before we can 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.359 communicate intelligently, or I'm sorry intelligibly with each other on 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.560 the operation of this extraordinary gas. I think Um Samuel 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.840 Taylor Coleridge, the great poet, um put it best. He 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.520 put it really succinctly. He basically said that it was 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:06.640 like coming in from the snow into a warm room. Yeah. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.040 So what happened was he did these experiments of these people. 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.160 They eventually got kind of tired of it. He experimented 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.280 on himself, like, not even in the room. He just 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.720 would fill up a big balloon or not a balloon 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:21.560 but a sip bag and just walk around England huffing. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:28.320 And he found himself getting psychologically hooked at least because 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.119 he said, he confessed that the desire to breathe the 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.879 gas is awakened in me by the sight of a 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.040 person breathing. So he would just see someone walking and 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.719 breathing and think, oh, man, I wish I had some gas. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.600 That's how they call it, hippie crack, Yeah, exactly. So 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.280 everyone else fell away. He was only experimenting with himself 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:46.919 for a little while. Then he brings in Cole Ridge 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.520 and they really buddied up, and Um, he I think 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.199 they were just kind of saw eye to eye on 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.639 the gas like neither one of them wanted to cease 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.840 using it. And so again, though you have to point out, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.399 all this time, while he's under the he's just huffing 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.760 nitrous basically constantly. Humphrey Davy is still remaining a man 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:12.159 of science. Right, So remember December was the day that 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.919 the Boxing Day experiment took place, right by Easter. Just 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.760 a few months later, he'd written a five hundred and 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:24.600 eighty page scientific treatise on nitrous oxide and its effects 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:29.880 on humans and animals? Should I read the title Researches 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:35.760 Chemical and Philosophical Chiefly concerning Nitrous oxide or de man? 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.440 What is that word? Deflogisticated nitrous air and its respiration 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.760 was the name of it? Yes, So in that book 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.960 he mentioned something um kind of I guess off handedly. 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.280 He says that as nitrous oxide appears capable of destroying 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.480 physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.119 surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place. Yes, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.440 so not like open heart surgery, but maybe if you're 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.720 gonna set someone's broken arm. Right, So he says this, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:11.879 But it's another forty years before Horace Wells starts trying 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.000 to use nitrous oxide as an anesthetic. Up to that point, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.320 it's basically just a high society drug that people have 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:23.560 like nitrous parties with. That was the fate of nitrous 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.840 oxide from eighteen hundred to about the eighteen forties. And 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.800 then Horace Wells picks it up and it becomes brought 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.040 into the medical field. Yeah, they finally start using it 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.360 for its intended Uh, well, what would end up being 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.959 its intended purpose? That's still used today, right and uh. 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.800 In fact, nitrous oxide is the number one inhaled anesthetic 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.159 in the medical profession. Asked for it by name. And 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.439 here's the deal though, when you get it in the 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.800 at the dentist, they can actually vary it, but it 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.840 never goes more than a seventy thirty mix. I saw 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.400 that too. This article says it's always a fifty fifty mix. 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.480 That's not right. So it's it's um no more than 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.480 nitrous Yeah, which is very much key, as you'll learn, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.120 because one of the big dangers of doing it recreationally 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.560 is not mixing it with oxygen. If you mix it 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:19.239 with oxygen, like, you're fine, You're totally fine. Um, So 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.600 it's kind of nuts. Chuck that with nitrous oxide. We've 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.720 spent at least a hundred and fifty years and still 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.679 the day we're not a million percent sure, but at 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.920 least a hundred and fifty years using it medically without 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.080 understanding how it worked. Yeah, it's like you said, though 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:37.879 it's still a little dicey. It is a little bit 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.280 dice know. It makes you feel good, right, It does 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:43.760 the trick, and it kicks in your your dopamine and 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.320 all the pleasure receptors. So it's it's classified as three things. 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.920 It's an analgesic, which means that it kills pain, it's 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.280 a it's an anesthetic, but it's actually not a true anesthetic. 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.879 And uh, it's an anxio lot eltic, which means it 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.480 diminishes anxiety. And so I found this two thousand six 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:06.080 paper um and it basically says here's what we think 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:11.600 is going on. So within angxiolitic um, it triggers the 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:16.200 same um response in the brain as a benzodiazepin, which 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:18.360 is like valium or z annex or something like that. 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:21.280 So it actually does cut down an anxiety, which is 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:23.920 why they dentist will use it for like little kids 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.040 or patients who are like nervous about going to the dentists. 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.920 Get a little gas, probably not a seventy thirty concentration, 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:32.960 just a little bit, and it will cut down on 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:36.040 your anxiety and you're you're totally fine, Doc, go ahead 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:38.919 and do whatever you like. UM as far as an 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.920 analgesic is concerned, it actually does have a tremendous amount 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.120 of um an ability to cut down on pain. And 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:50.480 it does so by activating your opioids that those are released, 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:55.880 opioids are producing the brain and your sorry opioid receptors 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.960 are activated as well. And then it also goes to 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.240 your spinal column and messes with its ability to UM 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:05.760 to process pain there too. And they say that something 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.400