220 On the Gaseous Oxide of Azote. 



I let go the bladder. I continued an Instant, without losing 

 my recollection, rolling my eyes in a dumb stupor; T then 

 burst into such a fit of laughter as I never experienced before 

 in my life. After some seconds, this tendency to laugh 

 ceased, as did also the other symptoms. 



M. de P' experienced no other effect than a convulsive 



motion in some muscles of the face. But he had a violent 

 diarrhoea in the course of the day; and M. D—r- expe- 

 rienced the same effects. 



Upon the whole, it would be very difficult to ascertain the 

 effects of gaseous oxide of azote in an exact and general man- 

 ner, since these effects vary in different individuals, and, 

 what is very singular, even in the same individual. M. de 



S , who inhaled it four times, felt new impressions every 



time. For my own part, I only experienced a tendency to 

 Jaughter in one of the several times I inhaled it. I should 

 certainly have fainted had I pushed the experiment further. 



Effects of the Gaseous Oxide of Azote upon Animals, 



I have only one experiment upon this subject, but it ap- 

 pears worth reporting, 



I put a greenfinch into a glass vessel full of gaseous oxide 

 of azote. The bird appeared to suffer nothing at first ; but 

 it soon closed its eyes, laid itself gently on its side, and ap- 

 peared as if asleep. When brought into the open air and 

 set at liberty, it placed itself on its legs, but did not attempt 

 to fly away. It was submitted an hour afterwards to a se- 

 cond experiment, and allowed to remain a little longer; but 

 yio efforts could restore it to life. 



It appears very remarkable that this bird made no effort 

 to get away, and that it felt no convulsions, as generally 

 takes place in the other gases, 



XL. Re- 



