Free Radicals
How a Group of Romantic Experimenters Gave Birth to Psychedelic Science
Published on 24. June 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-0-300-28261-0 (ISBN)
Description
The story of the circle of scientists, poets and dissidents who discovered laughing gas-and forever changed our understanding of the mind
An unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol. When he and its researchers discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, what was a pioneering public health initiative became a freewheeling exploration of consciousness.
Celebrated historian Mike Jay tells the story of Dr. Beddoes and his group of unorthodox experimenters. With the support of Erasmus Darwin and poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a laboratory designed by James Watt and funded by Thomas Wedgwood, and the self-experimenting chemistry assistant Humphrey Davy, Beddoes precipitated a revolution in scientific investigation.
Free Radicals for the first time charts the intellectual ferment of the Institute and reveals its crucial influence-as the crucible of the Romantic movement, and the birthplace of modern drug culture.
An unlikely circle of doctors, chemists, poets and political radicals formed a group round the maverick physician Thomas Beddoes. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, he founded the first modern medical institute, the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol. When he and its researchers discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, what was a pioneering public health initiative became a freewheeling exploration of consciousness.
Celebrated historian Mike Jay tells the story of Dr. Beddoes and his group of unorthodox experimenters. With the support of Erasmus Darwin and poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a laboratory designed by James Watt and funded by Thomas Wedgwood, and the self-experimenting chemistry assistant Humphrey Davy, Beddoes precipitated a revolution in scientific investigation.
Free Radicals for the first time charts the intellectual ferment of the Institute and reveals its crucial influence-as the crucible of the Romantic movement, and the birthplace of modern drug culture.
Reviews / Votes
A Spectator Book of the Year 2025"Fascinating, exciting, entertaining. . . . Jay's description of the wild highs induced by nitrous oxide is a tour de force, and so is his account of the bad trips, and the no-trips, it soon also turned out to deliver. . . . [A] superb book, learned and full of insight. . . . I can hardly think of a bad word to say against it."-John Barrell, London Review of Books
"Jay wonderfully restores Beddoes's reputation as a courageous and painstaking scientist, physician, revolutionary firebrand and social reformer-truly, one of the giants of rational thought."-Jay Rath, Fortean Times
"Brilliantly researched. . . . Fans of scientific biography and history of science, as well as history buffs in general, will be engrossed by Jay's marvelous study of an unusual man and the political and intellectual ferment of his time."-Publishers Weekly
"The book opens a window on a fascinating time in medical history."-David Knight, Social History of Medicine
"Excellent and eminently readable. . . . Mike Jay has succeeded in capturing the excitement of the times. . . . A thoroughly inspiring, informative and enjoyable read."-Gabriel Scally, International Journal of Epidemiology
"A brilliantly researched book and written in a lively style." -Sharon Ruston, Times Higher Education
"An outstanding work of historical non-fiction. . . . The book is full of fascinating research, which manages to thread together science, politics, and philosophy in an extremely engaging and well written narrative."-Literary Review
"The book makes good use of primary sources, and is an engaging read."-Leslie Tomory, AMBIX
Praise for Mike Jay's The Air Loom Gang:
"A wonderful book to read. . . . Beautifully written, with all the drama, the rich characterization, the subtlety, of a fine novel."-Oliver Sacks
"The pursuit of science in the evolution of culture does not get much more hair-raising than this. Mike Jay . . . has an uncanny ability to bring everything together through Dr Thomas Beddoes' experimental gases: hopes for the elimination of all disease, the politics of scientific research, the perpetual threat of political invasion, all in the tense period at the turn of the nineteenth century. This is history written as it should be."-George Rousseau, Oxford University, author, with Roy Porter, of Gout: The Patrician Malady
"Enthralling. This is exactly the kind of cross-cultural biography we need. Lively and sympathetic, it restores the renegade Dr Thomas Beddoes to his rightful place in scientific history, but also to his revolutionary circle of literary friends."-Richard Holmes
"Mike Jay's wonderfully sympathetic account is written vividly and with narrative flair. Bringing together medicine, chemistry, and politics, it is a compelling read."-Trevor Levere
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
27 bw illus.
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
326 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-28261-0 (9780300282610)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mike Jay has written extensively on scientific and medical history and contributes regularly to the London Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal. His previous books on the history of drugs include High Society, Mescaline and Psychonauts.