- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (21 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300124392
- ISBN-13: 978-0300124392
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.5 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 630,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"Refreshingly, The Atmostphere of Heaven is ... a racily written narrative ... a must-read account of Enlightenment enthusiasm." --Patricia Fara, BBC History Magazine, July 2009
"... [A] captivating study of a remarkable man ... The Atmosphere of Heaven is a superb achievement, blessedly lucid ..." --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review, August 2009
"[a] challenging biography ..." --John Carey, Sunday Times, 26th April 2009
"Diligently researched and engagingly told, Jay's book illuminates fascinating times." --Wendy Moore, Times Online, 6th May 2009
"This is a vivid and thrilling biography, when excitements and dangers fluidly crossed social and scientific boundaries." --Druin Burch, New Scientist, 9th May 2009
"...engaging and gripping volume."
--Shropshire Life, May 2009
'...a lively evocation of the early stirrings of experiment in medicine and chemistry, placed firmly in their social and cultural context.' --Andrew Scull, Times Literary Supplement, 30th October 2009
`Jay wonderfully restores Beddoes's reputation as a courageous and painstaking scientist, physician, revolutionary firebrand and social reformer.'
--Jay Rath, Fortean Times, 1st January 2010
`The book opens a window on a fascinating time in medical history'
--David Knight, Social History of Medicine Vol 23 No.1, April 2010
`A brilliantly researched book and written in a lively style.'
--Sharon Ruston, Times Higher Education, 23rd September 2010
"... [A] captivating study of a remarkable man ... The Atmosphere of Heaven is a superb achievement, blessedly lucid ..." --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review, August 2009
"[a] challenging biography ..." --John Carey, Sunday Times, 26th April 2009
"Diligently researched and engagingly told, Jay's book illuminates fascinating times." --Wendy Moore, Times Online, 6th May 2009
"This is a vivid and thrilling biography, when excitements and dangers fluidly crossed social and scientific boundaries." --Druin Burch, New Scientist, 9th May 2009
"...engaging and gripping volume."
--Shropshire Life, May 2009
'...a lively evocation of the early stirrings of experiment in medicine and chemistry, placed firmly in their social and cultural context.' --Andrew Scull, Times Literary Supplement, 30th October 2009
`Jay wonderfully restores Beddoes's reputation as a courageous and painstaking scientist, physician, revolutionary firebrand and social reformer.'
--Jay Rath, Fortean Times, 1st January 2010
`The book opens a window on a fascinating time in medical history'
--David Knight, Social History of Medicine Vol 23 No.1, April 2010
`A brilliantly researched book and written in a lively style.'
--Sharon Ruston, Times Higher Education, 23rd September 2010
Product Description
At the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, founded in the closing years of the eighteenth century, dramatic experiments with gases precipitated not only a revolution in scientific medicine but also in the history of ideas. Guided by the energy of maverick doctor Thomas Beddoes, the Institution was both laboratory and hospital - the first example of a modern medical research institution. But when its members discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, their experiments devolved into a pioneering exploration of consciousness with far-reaching and unforeseen effects. This riveting book is the first to tell the story of Dr. Beddoes and the brilliant circle who surrounded him: Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who supported his ideas; James Watt, who designed and built his laboratory; Thomas Wedgwood, who funded it; and, his dazzling young chemistry assistant, Humphry Davy, who identified nitrous oxide and tested it on himself, with spectacular results. Medical historian Mike Jay charts the chaotic rise and fall of the Institution in this fast-paced account, and reveals its crucial influence - on modern drug culture, attitudes toward objective and subjective knowledge, the development of anaesthetic surgery, and the birth of the Romantic movement.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you're interest lies in the period of the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, and in particular the world of medicine, then I would recommend that you read this engrossing book. Mike Jay tells the story of how Thomas Beddoes, with the assistance of some remarkable people, set up his Pneumatic Institution to research the use of gases and treat patients with the new found knowledge. The way in which these characters' endeavours, successes and failures are brought to life, in the context of their personal ambitions and the concerns and politics of the time, is masterly.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The central figure of the book, the polymath doctor-dreamer-poet Thomas Beddoes (1760-1808), is presented to the reader both as a deeply passionate human being as well as a flawed scientific visionary in a completely unsentimental way that underlines the depth of the author's research and knowledge.
The supporting cast of people such as Erasmus Darwin, Humphry Davy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Josiah and Tom Wedgwood come alive alongside vivid accounts of political radicalism as well as the scourges of consumption, poverty and a great deal more.
As in other books by this author, the last section hits another level all together with the various threads and concepts being taken to areas that reach so very far beyond what so many other authors would achieve within a purely historical work.
This is an exceptional book, with its tales of laughing gas, of psychonautic self-experimentation, of pushing the frontiers of science and medicine, of politics, and of clashing egos and driving ambition; written by a deeply talented author at the top of his game.
The supporting cast of people such as Erasmus Darwin, Humphry Davy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Josiah and Tom Wedgwood come alive alongside vivid accounts of political radicalism as well as the scourges of consumption, poverty and a great deal more.
As in other books by this author, the last section hits another level all together with the various threads and concepts being taken to areas that reach so very far beyond what so many other authors would achieve within a purely historical work.
This is an exceptional book, with its tales of laughing gas, of psychonautic self-experimentation, of pushing the frontiers of science and medicine, of politics, and of clashing egos and driving ambition; written by a deeply talented author at the top of his game.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Somewhat iffy title (and Beddoes a bad poet) but I have high hopes of this - will let you know!
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