Experiments for the Whole Family! Or not...

An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768

National Gallery, London

So in some Engine, that denies a Vent,

If unrespiring is some Creature pent,

It sickens, droops, and pants, and gasps for Breath,

Sad o'er the Sight swim shad'wy Mists of Death;

If then kind Air pours powerful in again.

New Heats, new Pulses quicken ev'ry Vein;

From the clear'd, lifted, life-rekindled Eye,

Dispers'd, the dark and dampy Vapours fly.

--"The Wanderer" by Richard Savage, 1729

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