title: Sir Humphry Davy; his researches in respiratory physiology and his debt to Antoine Lavoisier.
abstract: This article shows how the original works of the French scientist Antoine Lavoisier were developed by Humphry Davy, a trainee surgeon from Cornwall, while he was working as a physiologist. Antoine Lavoisier had worked out how oxidation involved the consumption of oxygen and the release of energy. Davy's book, Researches Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, published in 1799, describes the measurement of his own lung volumes, including the first recorded measurement of the residual volume. He measured his own rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. He is famous for his investigations into nitrous oxide, but he also investigated the effects of breathing nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. He made these observations with a gasometer and analysis of his expired air, and his work anticipates the invention of blood gas analysis.
authors.affiliation: Consultant Anaesthetist, Department of Anaesthesia, Arrowe Park Hospital, Upton, Wirral CH49 5PE, UK.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Sprigge
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D005602:France; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000266:history; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000266:history; D010827:Physiology / Q000266:history*; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation; D012143:Respiratory Physiological Phenomena
chemical_list: D009609:Nitrous Oxide