Pollution and reform in American cities, 1870–1930

Methods of manufacture and storage are fully described, together with the advance from primitive apparatus as used by Davy and Wells to the controllable nitrous oxide/oxygen percentage and pressure devices of Bert, Hewitt, and others. Dr Smith pays attention to the no less important social aspect of his subject. He reproduces playbills advertising demonstrations of nitrous oxide and the title sheets of two comic songs, Laughing Gas. Smith fully discusses the mysterious Dr Syntax in search of the grotesque and concludes that this is unlikely to have been written by William Combe, author of the authentic Dr Syntax series, but is a pastiche. It is interesting that Smith should have considered Coleridge as a possible author, thus providing a direct link with Davy, but he leaves the question of authorship open. In search of the grotesque is of importance to the early history of nitrous oxide because it contains an apparently authentic description of a dental extraction under nitrous oxide anaesthesia in Paris before 1820, thus antedating Wells's famous experiment by over twenty years. Two criticisms must be made. First, the presentation as a series of unedited papers is not altogether satisafactory. There is some repetition; for instance the same photograph of T. W. Evans appears on p. 75 and again on p. 93. Reference to a previous paper is muddling because the papers do not appear in the same order as originally published. Dr Smith explains in his preface that cost dictated this method of presentation. Second, the title Under the influence, illustrated on the dust-cover by a humorous print from Dr Syntax, is misleading, giving the impression that the content is suitable for light reading by the general public. These are minor criticisms. The book may be regarded as the classic history of nitrous oxide. It is well produced with a generous number of illustrations, and is fully documented. A work which should be read by every anaesthetist who is interested in his subject and which should find a place in the library of the medical historian. Urban pollution was recognized to be more than just a nuisance in the cities of industrializing America. Smoke-stacks, horse-choked streets, and the ever-present din were taken to be signs of prosperity, but the problems of waste disposal and air, water, and noise pollution plagued administrators, stimulated reformers, and consumed the efforts of public health workers. Historians of public health and sanitation …