EFFECTS OF INTOXICATING GAS. 343 



become red by the mere contact of air. M. 

 Vogel is also of opinion that this singular effect 

 would be accelerated in an apartment where 

 champagne or other fluids charged with car- 

 bonic acid are poured out in abundance. 



Among the wonders of chemistry we must 

 number the remarkable effects produced upon 

 the human frame by the inhalation of paradise or 

 intoxicating gas, as it has been called. This gas 

 is known to chemists by the name of the nitrous 

 oxide, or the gaseous oxide of azote, or the protoxide 

 of nitrogen. It differs from atmospheric air only 

 in the proportion of its ingredients, atmospheric 

 air being composed of twenty-seven parts of 

 oxygen, and seventy-three of nitrogen, while the 

 nitrous oxide consists of thirty-seven parts of 

 oxygen, and sixty-seven of nitrogen. The most 

 convenient way of procuring the gas is to expose 

 nitrate of ammonia in a tubulated glass retort to 

 the heat of an Argand's lamp between 400 and 

 500 of Fahrenheit. The salt first melts ; bubbles 

 of gas begin to rise from the mass, and in a short 

 time a brisk effervescence takes place, which con- 

 tinues till all the salt has disappeared. The pro- 

 ducts of this operation are the nitrous oxide and 

 water, the watery vapour being condensed in the 

 neck of the retort, while the gas is received over 

 water. The gas thus obtained is generally white, 

 and hence, when it is to be used for the purposes 

 of respiration, it should remain at least an hour 

 over water, which will absorb the small quantity 

 of acid and of nitrate of ammonia which adhere 

 to it. A pound of the nitrate of ammonia will 

 in this way yield five cubic feet of gas fit for the 

 purpose of inhalation. 



