The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7399 p546
6 May 2006

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Humphry Davy's laughing gas makes the stage again more
On the track of a celebrated Queen of Egypt more
How mankind is now destroying darkness more

Humphry Davy's laughing gas makes the stage again

In the latter years of the 18th century Humphry Davy turned his attention to research at the Pneumatic Medical Institution in Clifton, Bristol, set up by Thomas Beddoes. One prominent activity there was the inhalation of all manner of gases with the objective of defeating respiratory sicknesses. Davy came near to perishing from some of his experiments, notably the inhalation of carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen in high concentrations.

When it came to investigating the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide, many of Davy’s acquaintances joined him in these ventures, some of them with only the vaguest idea of what they were doing. Davy himself described “a feeling analogous to that produced in the first stages of intoxication” after breathing the gas. When he tried the effects of combining nitrous oxide with alcohol he speedily got drunk on wine and “danced about the laboratory like a madman.”

He found that the effects of nitrous oxide intoxication persisted for two or three hours, and were more marked if the dose was taken at night. When his Bristol friends were drawn into the experiments they reported different effects. Coleridge talked of ecstasy, Southey of a painful fear of falling.

Joseph Cottle the bookseller described how Davy persuaded a courageous young lady “to breathe out of his pretty green bag this delightful nitrous oxide. After a few inspirations, to the astonishment of everybody, the young lady rushed out of the house when, racing down the square, she leapt over a great dog in her way, but being pursued by the fleetest of her friends, was at last overtaken and secured without damage.” The sober residents of Clifton were somewhat alarmed at such antics.

Many popular lectures on chemistry were illustrated by a “laughing gas frolic”, and Davy discovered that nitrous oxide inhalation might become a drug habit.

So, it is disconcerting to read in my local West Country press that nightclubs have recently adopted nitrous oxide as a “recreational drug of choice”. Balloons of the gas are on sale, and so are cylinders of it for whipping cream. Medical cylinders have also been used. To turn a blind eye to this would be foolish.

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On the track of a celebrated Queen of Egypt

In the 14 February issue of Science there is a comment on a remarkable recent discovery among the tombs in the celebrated Valley of the Kings near Luxor on the Egyptian Nile, renowned for the discovery of the remains of Tutankhamun in 1922. Archaeologists consider it is possible that the latest tomb unearthed there contains the remains of Queen Nefertiti, who flourished in the 14th century BC.

Nefertiti was the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who had changed his name from the inherited title Amenhotep when he adopted the cult of the sun god Aten. Nefertiti shared her consort’s enthusiasm for the new cult, and indeed took over her husband’s role after his death. Apparently their six children were similarly converts to the monotheistic sun worship.

An archaeological team from the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the course of routine fieldwork found a four metre deep stone shaft that led them to a chamber containing mummies of several adults and a child. A coloured sarcophagus indicated a date of about 1330BC, covering the late 18th dynasty.

Identification of the mummy thought to be that of Nefertiti is so far uncertain, however. There is an existing bust of the queen in the Berlin museum and various engravings found in tombs give an idea of the features of the family. One strange peculiarity that may assist identification is a skull abnormality that is known to have been inherited by descendents of Akhenaten.

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How mankind is now destroying darkness

A century ago, Robert Southey commented: “How beautiful is night! / A dewy freshness fills the silent air; / No mist obscures, nor loud nor speck, nor stain / Breaks the serene of heaven”. Yet there are many places on the civilised planet where it is difficult, if not impossible, to experience night darkness and enjoy the spectacle of the heavenly bodies.

In the 7 April issue of Science, reviewing a recent book on the ecological consequences of artificial night lighting, David Hill, of Richmond in North Yorkshire, remarks that: “The aura of light that hangs over a city on an otherwise dark night brings into sharp focus the impact Homo sapiens is having on earth”. A satellite view of earth at night reveals hot spots of human activity in Europe, the US, India and Japan, and indicates how our species is extending its influence into every hour of the day and night. Some conservationists long for a world in which humans have a smaller ecological impact, but our constant drive for development, wealth creation, and its associated madness of consumption is resulting in less wilderness, less peace, and as a consequence, less wildlife.

It has been calculated that 44 per cent of Americans live in places where it never becomes dark enough for the human eye to complete the transition from cone to rod vision, and in developed countries the diurnal and nocturnal components of the natural 24-hour cycle are blurred.

Light-polluted skies are having serious effects on wildlife and ecosystem functions. A large number of species rely on a period of darkness to hide, to catch prey, to interact with others and to mate. Humans have for ages influenced animal behaviour through their use of campfires, but it is only over the past two decades that a dramatic increase in electrical lighting has presented a stiff challenge to wildlife routine. Road lighting may not reduce the impact of vehicles on nocturnal animals, and may even exacerbate it. Insectivorous species may be disrupted by competition from other animals that change their habits.

Traditional coastal lighting disorients turtles, for example, and the problem has been made worse by the development of seaside resorts with their brightly lit promenades and beach bars. Turtle nesting beaches should be kept dark at night if the turtles are to be able to make their way back to the sea.

Increased artificial lighting has an adverse effect on bird populations, especially if they migrate at night, as most small birds do. Although birds have long suffered marked fatalities through their attraction to lighthouses and lightships, the overall risk during night migration has been vastly increased by the light from high buildings, communications towers and aircraft warning lights. Turning the lights down will not only conserve energy but will reduce wildlife losses at the same time.

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