On the history and prehistory of CO2

I will trace the little known prehistory and parts of the better known history of CO₂ by investigating some of the names it has been given from Antiquity to the present day. In Antiquity, the words pneuma or spiritus letalis designated both a supernatural force and an exhalation that emanated from certain caves. We will see how CO₂ gradually came to be regarded as something natural, a gas and then substance.