Joseph Priestley discovered a gas in the late 1770s. Sir Humphrey Davy became the first human to inhale it and described it “very pleasurable” and called it ‘laughing gas.’ This gas was nitrous oxide. Priestley’s discoveries were published in 1772 in the book Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air.
Though Davy discovered that inhaling nitrous oxide could relieve a conscious person from pain, its primary use still remained recreational. These nitrous oxide capers occurred in travelling medicine shows and carnivals where the public paid a small price to inhale a minute’s worth of gas. People would laugh and act silly until the effect of the drug ended abruptly, leaving them confused.
It wasn’t until another 44 years had gone by, that doctors began to use it for anaesthesia. In the early 1840s, nitrous oxide was used as an anaesthetic in clinical dentistry and medicine.
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