In 1799, Humphrey Davy (he of the miner's safety lamp) tested the effect of inhaling nitrous oxide gas. He noticed two things: the euphoric effect, which led him to call it laughing gas, and the fact that it alleviated the pain of his toothache. He suggested that nitrous oxide could be used as an anaesthetic during surgery. His suggestion was not immediately adopted by the medical profession, but laughing gas certainly caught the public imagination, and gas inhaling 'parties' became all the rage.
By the 1820s, laughing gas shows had become a familiar turn in the music halls around London. The master of ceremonies would appear on stage with a flask of nitrous oxide; after a short 'scientific' lecture he would invite volunteers up on stage to sample it. Primed by stories of wild scenes and egged on by an excited audience, they would act out their brief intoxication with an uninhibited display of shouting, dancing and uproarious laughter. Similar shows proved popular in America where Samuel Colt (he of the mass-produced revolver) toured a laughing gas entertainment around New England. The Connecticut dentist Horace Wells was the first to extract a tooth under gas, before it was later adopted by the wider profession.
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