704 SHEFFIELD FUARMACEUTICAL AND CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION. 
to consider, not only the advantages to be derived from the study of botany, but also 
the amusement and recreation which it might be made the means of affording. The 
advantages which the gentlemen present would derive from the study were of a twofold 
character, having reference to their position, on the one hand, as students of pharmacy, 
and on the other as young men anxious to improve their reasoning and perceptive 
faculties, and to extend their knowledge of nature. He was fully conscious of the temp¬ 
tation to which every teacher was exposed of overrating the importance of his own sub¬ 
ject, and, while anxious to avoid this error, felt nevertheless that he was justified in 
affirming that, in the ease with which botany may be studied, in the pleasure 
afforded by the study itself, and in the worth and value of the knowledge when 
acquired, botany was second to no other science. A sketch was then given of the plan of 
study to be pursued in the botanical class about to be established, and the address con¬ 
cluded with some remarks on the natural system of classification, the Order A tropacece 
being especially referred to as affording a remarkable example of natural affinity 
amongst its members, the juice of every one of which has the property of dilating the 
pupil, and probably contains the same alkaloid, atropia. 
A cordial vote of thanks was proposed to Mr. Burnie for his very interesting address, 
and carried unanimously. 
THE SCARBOROUGH CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Monthly Meeting of the above Association was held on Monday, April 4th, 
when the chief business of the evening was to pass most unanimously, without a single 
dissentient, a resolution condemning the proposed regulations for the keeping and dis¬ 
pensing of poisons, so far as they shall be compulsory, as a most unnecessary restriction 
on the liberty of the chemist, and entailing further responsibilities of great magnitude, 
without any corresponding advantages. 
SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICAL AND CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION. 
A Special Meeting of this Association was called for Wednesday evening, March 30, 
on account of the lecturer, Mr. George Harrison, F.L.S., F.C.S., having to go abroad 
earlier than was anticipated. The subject of the lecture was “ Nitrous Oxide, or 
Laughing Gas, and its Application to Surgical PurposesMr. Wilson, the President, 
in the chair. 
The history of the gas was first dwelt upon. It was discovered by Priestley in 1776, 
and the gas, as well as the substance from which it was made, were partially investi¬ 
gated by Sir Humphry Davy. 
Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Wedgwood, and the poet Southey, who called it “ the gas 
of Paradise,” were among the first to experience its pleasant effects. 
The gas was made experimentally and its chemical properties fully shown. To illus¬ 
trate its power of producing anesthesia, the lecturer took the gas, and in fifty seconds 
from the inhalation, total insensibility to pain was produced. The President then in¬ 
haled it, and caused some amusement on telling the audience his pleasant sensations 
while under its influence. 
The lecturer then stated that for short operations, as taking off a finger or the ex¬ 
traction of a tooth, it was superior to any anaesthetic known. Its advantages over ether 
or chloroform are, that under its influence the patient suddenly becomes insensible, and 
quickly recovers consciousness—the inhalation being unattended by nausea and the 
dangerous effects incidental to chloroform and ether. To bear out this remark, the 
lecturer read several certificates from some of the most influential men in the town, 
kindly lent to him by Mr. Harrison, dentist, St. James Street, who during the past 
fifteen months, has administered the gas in some hundreds of cases. Mr. Harrison, in 
conclusion, stated that although the gas was discovered by one of our own countrymen, 
an American, Mr. Morton (a pupil and then assistant of Horace Wells, who first applied 
it in dentistry), has petitioned Congress for an appropriation of £40,000, as a reward 
for his exertions in applying it to surgical purposes. 
Some discussion then took place, chiefly on the. safety of administering the gas. 
