of the Centenary of the Birth of Dr. Priestley. 383 



tained more important and valuable results, than could be justly 

 claimed on behalf of any of his cotemporaries. 



To the correctness of this statement I have reason to expect that 

 satisfactory testimony will be given, in the course of the evening, by 

 several friends present, whose authority on this subject will not be 

 disputed. If in estimating what we owe to the discoveries of this 

 most sagacious and successful inquirer, I may be allowed to refer to 

 the benefits which they have conferred upon mankind in reference to 

 my own profession, I may ask what, before the time of Priestley, did 

 we know of the constitution of the atmosphere, — of the composition 

 of water, — of the nature of mineral springs ? And were we not com- 

 paratively ignorant of the composition of metallic oxides, mineral 

 acids, and many other of the most active articles of the Materia 

 Medica ? I may also be permitted to remind you, that for the pur- 

 pose of applying certain of the elastic fluids, or gases, to the treat- 

 ment of pulmonic diseases, Dr. Beddoes, of the University of Oxford, 

 quitted his employment as professor, to settle himself at Bristol ; and 

 that it was tothe necessity of his requiring assistance in this pursuit 

 that we are indebted for the additional light thrown on chemical re- 

 search by the genius of the immortal Davy. Had oxygen gas alone 

 been the fruit of Dr. Priestley's investigations, the obligations con- 

 ferred on our profession must have been indelible. Of this I might 

 adduce a proof by referring to an occurrence, the particulars of which 

 were made public by myself in the year 1807 ; and as they may be 

 considered not altogether irrelevant, I will, with your permission, 

 briefly state them. 



Two persons, servants in a public-house in the neighbourhood of 

 Aldermanbury, where I then resided, the one a lad of 13 years old, 

 the other a man of 35, having gone to bed in a small room in which 

 a brasier of lighted charcoal had been left burning, were found the 

 next morning in a state of complete insensibility. The lad had fallen 

 on the floor, and appeared quite lifeless ; and all endeavours at re- 

 suscitation in his case proved unsuccessful. In the man some signs 

 of life still remained. Before my arrival he had been removed into 

 a large chamber, and a few ounces of blood had been taken from his 

 arm. From these measures, however, no improvement had been ef- 

 fected. I found him still quite insensible ; his countenance pale, his 

 respiration imperfect, his pulse sinking, his tongue protruding, and 

 his under jaw in a state of spasm. In this apparently almost hope- 

 less state, it occurred that the most likely means of restoring vitality 

 would be to produce artificial respiration, and at the same time to 

 employ oxygen gas in place of atmospheric air. Having by good 

 fortune a portable galvanic trough at my command, and being promptly 

 supplied by my friend, Mr. William Allen, with the necessary quan- 

 tity of oxygen gas, there was little or no loss of time in making the 

 experiment. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the result. 

 At every application of the galvanic conductor to the lower and an- 

 terior part of the chest, a muscular spasm ensued, by which the chest 

 was expanded, and an opportunity was consequently given for the 

 introduction of the oxygen gas with obvious effect. By a repetition 



