Letter from Dr. Beddoet m the Nitrout Oxide. 75 



I fend you a few of thefe grafshoppers, as I cut them from the trees. They being hard 

 and dry, mod of their legs broke ofF in taking them home. 



I am, with great refpeft. 

 Dear Sir, 

 Your mod obedient and 

 Humble Servant, 



JOHN HECKEWELDER. 



V. 



Letter from Dr. Beddobs on the Experiments made at the Royal Inflitulion with the 



Nitrous Oxide. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



Cliftottt i^th April. 



T. 



HOUGH I muft be too well aware of the caufes of variation in medical and phyfio- 

 logical teftimony, to be much moved by groundlcfs contradiction, yet I own I did expedt 

 that competent experimenters would nearly agree in their reports of the cfFeft, produced 

 by refpiring the nitrous oxide. 



A few days ago, however, I was well informed, that on trial at a refpe£lablc inftitution 

 in London, the gas had fallen far Ihort of what Mr. Davy and myfelf had taught the public 

 to expedt. The gentleman who brought this intelligence being at Clifton,, it was eafy to 

 give him perfonal proof of our fidelity. 



Yefterday my friend Mr. William Reynolds, of Ketley, in Shropfhire, aflured me that 

 he had himfelf refpired the gas at the itijlittdion in London to no purpofe ; and that moft 

 others had done the fame. The agency of the nitrous oxide is much too diftindl and cer- 

 tain to leave a doubt, but that there muft be fome ftrange miftake here. On feeing a 

 paralytic patient take it, Mr. W. R. was at once aware of the reafon (at lead, of one 

 fufficlent reafon) for the failures in town, and on refpiring a very fmall quantity indeed, 

 he felt efFedts exadlly the fame in kind, as the agreeable ones defcribed in my notice. He 

 had previoufly inhaled atmofpheric air without knowing it to be fuch. He expatiated 

 with fatisfadtion on the fenfations now excited by the nitrous oxide, and faid he fliould like 

 another dofe. On being aflced, if he had felt any fuch defire after the experiment in town, 

 he anfwered, no not the leaft. We are conftantly accuftcmed to the eager expreflion of 

 this delire. 



L 2 In 



