On May 3d. To ascertain whether the gas would accelerate or retard the progress of sleep, I breathed at about 8 o’clock in the evening, 25 quarts of nitrous oxide, in quantities of six at a time, allowing but short intervals between each dose. The feelings were much less pleasurable than usual, and during the consumption of the two last doses, almost indifferent; indeed the gas was breathed rather too soon after its production and contained some suspended acid vapour which stimulated the lungs so as to induce coughing.
After the experiments, for the first time I was somewhat depressed and debilitated; my propensity to sleep however, came on at the usual hour, and as usual was indulged in, my repose was sound and unbroken.
Between May and July, I habitually breathed the gas, occasionally three or four times a day for a week together; at other periods, four or five times a week only.
The doses were generally from six to nine quarts; their effects appeared undiminished by habit, and were hardly ever exactly similar. Sometimes I had the feelings of intense intoxication, attended with but little pleasure; at other times, sublime emotions connected with highly vivid ideas; my pulse was generally increased in fulness, but rarely in velocity.
The general effects of its operation upon my health and state of mind, are extremely difficult of description; nor can I well discriminate between its agency and that of other physical and moral causes.
I slept much less than usual, and previous to sleep, my mind was long occupied by visible imagery. I had a constant desire of action, a restlessness, and an uneasy feeling about the præcordia analogous to the sickness of hope.
But perhaps these phænomena in some measure depended on the interest and labour connected with the experimental investigation relating to the production of nitrous oxide, by which I was at this time incessantly occupied.
My appetite was as usual, and my pulse not materially altered. Sometimes for an hour after the inspiration of the gas, I experienced a species of mental indolence[207] pleasing rather than otherwise, and never ending in listlessness.
During the last week in which I breathed it uniformly, I imagined that I had increased sensibility of touch: my fingers were pained by any thing rough, and the tooth edge produced from slighter causes than usual. I was certainly more irritable, and felt more acutely from trifling circumstances. My bodily strength was rather diminished than increased.
At the end of July, I left off my habitual course of respiration; but I continued occasionally to breathe the gas, either for the sake of enjoyment, or with a view of ascertaining its operation under particular circumstances.