ABSTRACT
The now very widespread use of nitrous oxide as an anaesthetic in dental operations – Davy tried it when he had toothache – does not seem to excite all the remarkable effects recorded in Davy’s time. The explanation may be that frequently the gas was diluted with common air, and administered in small doses, so that only the excitable stage preceding unconsciousness was reached. The charm of Wedgwood’s elegance must have pleased Davy, who liked elegance in others, though he had too much gusty force to be elegant himself. A quality quite other than elegance drew him to another friend made in his Bristol days – Tom Poole of Nether Stowey. Poole was essentially a moderate man; quite other was Robert Southey in his youth, and Southey was more intimate with Davy than Poole when Davy first came to Bristol.
