Filling the house with hydrogen sulphide

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

'My interest was chemistry and my education was public library'

RELATED STORIES

Filling the house with hydrogen sulphide

Oliver Sacks Scientist

	Views	Duration
61. My hypochondriac imaginings	505	02:05
62. My self-destructive nature	593	00:47
63. Freud heard 'voices'	581	00:41
64. The indestructible individuality of chemistry	368	02:02
65. Uncle Tungsten's mentoring	367	00:26
66. My dangerous chemistry laboratory	345	00:48
67. Filling the house with hydrogen sulphide	320	00:45
68. 'My interest was chemistry and my education was public library'	349	00:39
69. My lifelong interest in swimming	921	01:42
70. The therapeutic effects of swimming	709	00:46

Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

On one occasion, I made a lot of hydrogen sulphide. Hydrogen sulphide has a very nasty smell of rotten eggs, and is actually very poisonous indeed, and I just... it’s so easy to make. Ferrous sulphide costs nothing, hydrochloric acid costs nothing – I was very generous, so I poured acid over half a pound of ferrous sulphate... ferrous sulphide, and the house had to be emptied. Maybe I did a similar thing in effect with the cuttlefish later.

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.

Title: Filling the house with hydrogen sulphide

Listeners: Kate Edgar

Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.

Tags: hydrogen sulphide, ferrous sulphide, hydrochloric acid, ferrous sulphide

Duration: 45 seconds

Date story recorded: September 2011

Date story went live: 02 October 2012