Thomas Beddoes to an Unknown Correspondent, 20 August 1793
In a letter dated the 20th August, he informs one of his friends, of his ‘having been very active in preparing for a noble course of pneumatic experiments on animals. He had already made four upon kittens, with uniformly the same result. Two were selected, of the same age, and the one that appeared the weaker of the two, was placed in air with an over proportion of oxygene. The proportion which he found fittest for his purpose, was one half oxygene, and the other half atmospheric air. Undiluted oxygene was too strong. The other kitten was left to respire the common air of the atmosphere. After some time, he drowned both. The animal which had breathed a modified atmosphere drowned last and recovered first. In a fourth repetition of this experiment performed before several friends, by one of whom the subjects for it had been selected, and the weakest placed in the oxygenated medium, ‘the latter was perfectly recovered fifteen minutes before the other got upon its legs’.
Published: Stock, p. 96.