Mr. John Cave, Junr. and his three friends, as well as others, compared the effects to Champagne. Most persons have had the idea of the effect of fermented liquors excited by the gas. It were to be wished that we had, for a standard of comparison, observations on the effect of these liquors as diversified and as accurate as we have obtained concerning the gas; nor would more uniformity in the action of these substances be observed if the enquiry were strictly pursued. Opium and spirits seem, in particular states to sicken and distress in the first instance; how differently does wine at an early hour and fasting act upon those who are accustomed to take it only after dinner! I thought it might be an amusing spectacle to see the different tints of blood flowing from a wound by a leech in consequence of breathing different airs. The purple from the nitrous oxide was very evident. Oxygene, we thought, occasioned a quicker flow and brighter color in the blood. In another experiment, an inflamed area round the puncture from a leech applied the day before, was judged by several spectators to become much more crimson on the respiration of about 20 quarts of oxygene gas, which possibly acts more powerfully on inflamed parts.[227] These and many similar experiments, require to be repeated on the blood of single arteries opened in warm and cold animals. [227] After writing this, I was present when an invalid, in whose foot the gout, after much wandering, had at last fixed, breathed 12 quarts of oxygene gas. While breathing, he eagerly pointed to the inflamed leg; and afterwards said he had felt in it a new sensation, somewhat like tension.—I never had seen oxygene respired where there was so much local inflammation. June 18. After four quarts of oxygene with 6 of nitrous oxide and then 6 of nitrous oxide alone, violent itching of the wounds made by the leech; and redness and tumour.—Both had healed, and I did not expect to feel any thing more from them.—I tried this again with two doses of nitrous oxide—The yellow halo round one wound changed to crimson, and there was so much stinging and swelling that I feared suppuration.—Absorption here was rapid. It has appeared to me that I could hold my breath uncommonly long when respiring oxygene gas mixed with nitrous oxide. While trying this to-day, (17th June), I thought the sense of smell much more acute after the nitrous oxide than before I began to respire at all; and then I felt conscious that this increased acuteness had before repeatedly occurred—a fact very capable, I apprehend, of a pneumatological interpretation. Time by my feelings has always appeared longer than by a watch.