1783: The first experiments using oxygen

So oxygen had been discovered by three men -- Wilhelm Scheele, Joseph Priestly, and Antoine Lavoisie -- all three unaware that the other was working on the same thing.  They all had different theories regarding it, and they all gave it a unique name -- empirial air, dephlogisticated air, and oxygene.

So the race was on to learn more about this substance, and what therapeutic benefits one might receive from inhaling it.

Stephen Hales created a device he called a pneumatic trough that he used to collect both carbon dioxide and oxygen, and now he was certain that plants obtained their nourishment from this air. (4, page 193)

Henry Cavendish (1731-1810)

The first reported experiments using oxygen on humans was done in 1783 by Francois Chausier, a surgeon and anatomist, and also a professor of obstetrics in Paris. (2)

What he did was prescribe intermittent inhalations, for about 2-3 hours each day, for his patients with consumption to see if it would relieve their dyspnea. (2)

Similar experiments were performed by a French physician named Caillens.  He gave a young woman with consumption daily inhalations of oxygen, of which he said she greatly benefited. (8)

He also gave oxygen to an asphyxiated newborn baby in 1780, and also described giving mouth to mouth respirations to them. (2)

Joseph Priestly, the man given credit for the discovery of oxygen (what he referred to as dephlogisticated air) was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, along with Josiah Wedgewood, Erasmus Darwin, and James Watt. It was a society whose members met each month under on the night of the full moon to discuss the transfer of scientific knowledge to industry. (8)

It may have been through the friendship formed through these meetings that Darwin and Watt learned of the benefits of "dephlogisticated air" from Priestly. (8)

Darwin became interested in "dephlogisticated air," although, after reading the works of Lavoisier, used the name "oxygen" in his famous book of poems called "The Botanic Garden" in 1791.  Some say it was because of this book that the name Oxygen became the official name of the element.

Realizing the potential benefits of oxygen, and probably that a profit could be made, Thomas Beddoes decided he wanted to open up a clinic that would allow patients to pay to inhale this air a few hours every day.

Perhaps inspired by what he learned from is friend Priestly, Watt joined Beddoes, inventing some of the equipment that was essential for the project to work.  They were also joined by Humphry Davy, who also made significant contributions to the project.

With the help of his friends, Beddoes opened the "Pneumatic Institute" in Bristol, England, in 1798. (8) (9, page 20)

Francois Chaussier (1746-1848)

This was the first of what would later be referred to as oxygen parlors, which became common in the 19th century.

Beddoes devised a system where any amount of oxygen could be added into the atmosphere of small compartments.  A patient would spend a certain amount of time in these compartments breathing supplemental oxygen.

Beddoes, Watt and Davy did not advertise that the inhalation of oxygen would cure anything.  The insisted their project was an experiment, and that oxygen might be beneficial as a treatment for obstinate ulcers, leprosy, spasms, cancer, dropsy, hydrocephalis, headache, poisoning by opium, paralysis, scofulous tumors, scorbutus, venereal, deafness, white swelling, melancholy, general dibility, continued fever, intermittent fever, and coldness of the extremities, consumption, palsy, heart failure, and asthma.  (2, page 281) (8) (9, page 20)

Thomas Beddoes (1730-1810) is often
considered the father of respiratory therapy.

Yet despite the therapeutic experiments of Beddoes, oxygen was not generally accepted by the medical community, perhaps mainly due to the fact there were not efficient and inexpensive devices for making it and delivering it to the patient.  (2, page 281)

Of course there was also no experiment that proved without a doubt the benefits of using it either.  (2, page 281)

And, considering the crude nature at which oxygen was made, chances are patients did not receive much more oxygen than what was in the air, which is 21%.  Some speculate that patients received 23-28% oxygen. (8)

The institution was converted into a hospital during an epidemic of typhus in the fall of 1800, thus ending the experiment. (8)

After Beddoes, oxygen wasn't used therapeutically again until a cholera outbreak in 1832, and the study of it not continued until John Haldane took it up again a century later. (2, page 281)

References:

1. Gray, Alonzo, "Elements of Chemistry:  Containing the Principles of the Science, both experimental and theoretical," 1840, Massachusetts, page 118
2. Brainbridge, William Seaman, "Oxygen in Medicine and Surgery -- a contribution with report of cases," New York State Journal of Medicine, 1908, Vol. 8, June, No. 6, pages 281-295
3. "Carbon Dioxide,"  Scienceclariied.com, http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ca-Ch/Carbon-Dioxide.html#b, observed the site on May 4, 2012 (this information is available at a variety of sources, although I chose to give sciencedaily.com credit)
4. Magner, Lois N., "History of Life Sciences," 2002, 3rd edition, New York, Marcel Dekker
5. Hill, Leonard, Benjamin Moore, Arthur Phillip Beddard, John James Rickard, etc., editors, "Recent Advances in Physiology and bio-chemistry," 1908, London, Edward Arnold
6. Fruto, Joseph S, "Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology," 1999, New York, Yale University
7. Blakeman, Thomas C., "Evidence for Oxygen Use in the Hospitalized Patient: is more really the enemy of good," Respiratory Care, October, 2013, volume 58, number 10, pages 1679-1693
8. Grainge, CP, "Breath of Life: the evolution of oxygen therapy," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, October, 2004, 97 (10), pages 489-493
9. Heffner, JE, "The story of oxygen," Respiratory Care, January, 2013, volume 58, number 1, pages 18-30

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1772: Oxygen is discovered

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786)

Oxygen was first described in 1740 by Alexander Ferguson, yet it wasn't discovered until 1772 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.  He learned that candles burned brighter when he heated mercuric oxide and potassium titrate.

Because the gas he discovered made candles burn brighter, he referred to it as empyreal air, or fire air.

The problem for him was he waited until 1777 to publish his discovery in "Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire." By this time someone else had already received credit. (2, page 282)

Joseph Priestly (1733-1804)

Unaware of the works of Scheele, and unaware that a third man -- Antoine Lavoisier -- was doing similar research, (1) Joseph Priestly published a book in 1775 called "Observations on different kinds of Air."

Priestly described experiments he performed where he observed that blood placed in an atmosphere of hydrogen or nitrogen gave off a gas that he referred to as "dephlogisticated air." Due to the timeliness of his book, he is often given credit for the discovery of oxygen, despite the works of other men. (5, page 517)

So when Priestly burned mercury, he believed the gas emitted was the result of "phligoston," or impurities, being removed from the air and drawn into the mercury.  In this way, burning mercury purified the air.  This is why he referred to it as "dephlogisticated air." (5, page 476) (7 page 1680)

Antioine Lavoisier (1743-1794) 

The authors of a to a 1908 book called "Recent Advances in Physiology and bio-chemistry," said Priestly's...

...experiments were sound, but his views on respiration were erroneous, vitiated as they were by his belief in the old theory of "phlogiston" introduced by Stahl in 1697. Phlogiston was the material and principle of fire, not fire itself, and respiration, according to Priestley, was a phlogistic process, whereby the phlogiston absorbed by animals with their food was discharged. Venous blood was phlogisticated, arterial blood dephlogisticated; a clot of blood placed in "fixed" or phlogisticated air became very dark, but regained its red colour when it was transferred to oxygen or dephlogisticated air. This old theory was overthrown a few years later by Lavoisier, who extended and explained correctly the discoveries of Mayow, Black, and Priestley; he showed that there were differences in the so called phlogistic processes. (5, page 476)

Stephen Hales (1677-1761)

Priestly also observed that mice living in an environment with supplemental oxygen lived longer than mice who breathed normal air.  This was the first proof of the therapeutic benefits of supplemental oxygen.  (2)

After performing such experiments, he said he decided to try breathing it himself through a glass siphon.  He said:

The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly differentfrom that of common air; but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it. (11, page 102)

Priestly then concluded the work of Michael Servetus, who noticed that the lungs changed the color of the blood and were the reason arterial blood was a brighter color than venous blood.  Priestly proved that oxygen is inhaled into the lungs and exchanged from the alveoli to the capillaries and then into the arteries.

Surely Priestly observed the possible therapeutic effects of oxygen, yet he also was concerned, and offered a warning regarding its use.  He said:

From the greater strength and vivacity of the flame of a candle, in this pure air, it may be conjectured, that it might be peculiarly salutary to the lungs in certain morbid cases, when the common air would not be sufficient to carry off the phlogistic putrid effluvium fast enough. But, perhaps, we may also infes from these experiments, that though pure dephlogisticated air might be very useful as a medicine, it might not be so proper for us in the usual healthy state of the body: for,, as a candle burns out much faster in dephlogisticated than in common air, so we might, as may be said, live out too fast and the animal powers be too soon exhausted in this pure kind of air. A moralist, at least, may say, that the air which nature has provided for us is as good as we deserve. (11, page 101)

In an 1866 paper, "Factitious Airs," Henry Cavendish described his discovery of hydrogen, or what he referred to as "inflammable air." He "exploded a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and thus proved that water was not an element, but a compound of two gases." (4, page 194)

While the first gas was hydrogen, the second gas was oxygen, an element that Lavoisier would soon give a name to.

While Priestly is given credit for the discovery of oxygen, it was Lavoisier, in 1778, who disproved the "phlogostin" theory, thereby proving the substance that priestly had named "dephlogisicated air" was a chemical element, and he named it "oxygene," or "acid former." was the name that ultimately caught on. (8) (9, page 19)

This name for the element was chosen by Lavoisier because he believed it was the great 'acidifying principle in nature.' Oxygen is Greek for generator of acids.(1) (7, page 1680)

Lavoisier chose this name because he believed oxygen was acidic in nature due to some of the things it did. For instance, Lavoisier discovered that oxygen was involved in the rusting of metals, the formation of dew, as well as the respiration of animals and humans. Because it created such changes he believed it was an acid.

Lavoisier, working with Pierre-Simon Laplace, determined, in 1780, that the body's heat was a byproduct of combustion that takes place in the body.  So in this way he disproved Galen's theory that a body's heat was produced in the heart. He later determined this combustion took place both in the lungs and other places in the body. It was later proved by others that it was in the tissues that respiration occurs. (5, page 476)

Many years later it was learned that oxygen is present in most acids.  So for this reason the name "oxygen" really isn't an appropriate name for oxygen.  Yet the name stuck.  (1)

Regardless, this was the beginning of knowledge of respiratory exchange.

References:

1. Gray, Alonzo, "Elements of Chemistry:  Containing the Principles of the Science, both experimental and theoretical," 1840, Massachusetts, page 118
2. Brainbridge, William Seaman, "Oxygen in Medicine and Surgery -- a contribution with report of cases," New York State Journal of Medicine, 1908, Vol. 8, June, No. 6, pages 281-295
3. "Carbon Dioxide,"  Scienceclariied.com, http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ca-Ch/Carbon-Dioxide.html#b, observed the site on May 4, 2012 
4. Magner, Lois N., "History of Life Sciences," 2002, 3rd edition, New York, Marcel Dekker
5. Hill, Leonard, Benjamin Moore, Arthur Phillip Beddard, John James Rickard, etc., editors, "Recent Advances in Physiology and bio-chemistry," 1908, London, Edward Arnold
6. Fruto, Joseph S, "Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology," 1999, New York, Yale University
7. Blakeman, Thomas C., "Evidence for Oxygen Use in the Hospitalized Patient: is more really the enemy of good," Respiratory Care, October, 2013, volume 58, number 10, pages 1679-1693
8. Grainge, CP, "Breath of Life: the evolution of oxygen therapy," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, October, 2004, 97 (10), pages 489-493
9. Heffner, JE, "The story of oxygen," Respiratory Care, January, 2013, volume 58, number 1, pages 18-30
10. Holzapple, GE, "The uses and effects of oxygen gas and nux vomica in the treatment of pneumonia," New York Medical Journal, September 3, 1887, volume 46, pages 264-267
11. Priestly, Joseph, "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air," volume 2, 1875, London, Printed for J. Johnson

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