102 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



been with Davy and other eminent men. He brought with 

 him a galvanic battery of Cruickshank's construction, the 

 first that I had ever seen, but as it contained only fifty 

 pairs of plates, it produced little effect. Dr. Woodhouse 

 attempted to exhibit the exciting effects of Davy's nitrous 

 oxide, but failed for want of a sufficient quantity of gas, and 

 the tubes were too narrow for comfortable respiration. He 

 did not advert to these facts, but was inclined to treat the 

 supposed discovery as an illusion. I had afterwards, at 

 New Haven, an opportunity to prove that there was no 

 mistake, and that Davy had not overrated the exhilarating 

 effects of the gas when respired conveniently and in proper 

 quantities, three or four quarts to a person of medium 

 size, inhaled through a wide tube. An amusing occurrence 

 happened one day in the laboratory. Hydrogen gas was 

 the subject, and its relation to life. It was stated that an 

 animal confined in it would die ; and a living hen was, for 

 the experiment, immersed in the hydrogen gas, with which 

 a bell-glass was filled. The hen gasped, kicked, and lay 

 still. " There, gentlemen," said the Professor, " you see 

 she is dead ; " but no sooner had the words passed his lips, 

 than the hen with a struggle overturned the bell-glass, and 

 with a loud scream flew across the room, flapping the heads 

 of the students with her wings, while they were convulsed 

 with laughter. The same thing might have occurred to 

 any one who had incautiously omitted to state that this gas 

 is not poisonous, like carbonic acid, but kills, like water, by 

 suffocation. 



The death of Dr. Woodhouse took place in 1815, I sup- 

 pose from apoplexy. He was found dead in his bed. He 

 had a short neck, and was of a full sanguineous habit. 

 The chemistry of that period that of my attendance on 

 the lectures of Dr. Woodhouse, more than half a century 

 ago had not attained the precision which it now has. 

 The modern doctrine of definite proportions or equivalent 

 proportions was then only beginning to be understood ; the 



