Horace Wells On Nitrous Oxide

Thomas Gamsjger

Horace Wells On Nitrous Oxide

Thomas Gamsjger

First Edition 2013 Copyright Thomas Gamsjger CreateSpace Independent Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1493660230

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................ 7 Reprint.................................................................................................... 11 History of the Discovery of the Application of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether, and Other Vapors, to Surgical Operations ................................................................................. 13 Preface .................................................................................................... 15 History.................................................................................................... 17 Testimony .............................................................................................. 27 Notes on the Sources ........................................................................... 41 Bibliography .......................................................................................... 43 Further Reading .................................................................................... 45 Index ....................................................................................................... 47

1 Introduction
Dentist, inventor. But most of all, Horace Wells was a tragic figure. On 21 January 1815 he was born into a comparatively wealthy family in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended the best schools available, and already during his adolescence he was known for his 'restlessness, activity, and intelligence' with repeated praise for his 'inventive genius and great mechanical talent'. Aged 19, he moved to Boston to take up dentistry, which at this time was still more a trade than a profession.1,2 Why, of all things, dentistry? The historical records still do not give any indication. After his apprenticeship he went back to Hartford and opened an office on Main Street. The business developed reasonably well, even the Governor of Connecticut, William W. Ellsworth, was among his patients. In addition, he was able to take on students himself. One of them was William T. Morton.3 In December 1844 Wells watched the 'Grand Exhibition of the Effects Produced by Inhaling Nitrous Oxide, Exhilarating or Laughing Gas', which was presented by the itinerant lecturer Gardner Quincy Colton. Under the influence of inhaled nitrous oxide one of the participants bruised his leg severely but appeared to feel no pain whatsoever.4,5,6,7,8 Immediately Wells saw the possible implications of this observation. He might be able to alleviate the sometimes excruciating pain patients had to suffer under his own hands in dentistry. Already on the next day Wells tried the gas himself and had a tooth extracted that had bothered him for quite a

while. And he felt no pain! It was 11 December 1844, Nitrous Oxide Day.9 Encouraged by the experience, Wells applied nitrous oxide to several of his dentistry patients with resounding success. Therefore, he decided to present his findings to the appropriate representatives of medical profession. But as the occasion arrived when he was granted the opportunity to use nitrous oxide in a tooth extraction in the Massachusetts General Hospital he removed the gas bag to soon, the patient groaned under the pain, and Wells presentation was pronounced 'a humbug affair'.10,11 What followed in the ensuing years was a bitter controversy with his former student William T. Morton. Morton was the first to use ether as an inhalational anaesthetic in 1846, but he claimed the whole concept of inhalational anaesthesia as his own development without acknowledging Wells' discovery with respect to nitrous oxide from two years before.12 Wells was not able to counter Morton's often unscrupulous handling of the matter. Embittered he more or less gave up dentistry, but he tried to continue his work on anaesthetics in the course of which he heavily self-experimented with chloroform. In a psychologically deranged state he attacked two women in the open street which brought him to New York's Tombs Prison. There, on 24 January 1848 he committed suicide, at the age of only 33.13

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1 2

3 4 5 6

Archer, Life and Letters, pp. 83-84. Ellsworth, Life of Horace Wells. In: Smith, An Inquiry into the Origin of Modern Anaesthesia, pp. 8-9. Archer, Life and Letters, pp. 89-99. Archer, Life and Letters, p. 177. Smith and Hirsh, Gardner Quincy Colton, pp. 383-384. Archer, Life and Letters, p. 107.

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Colton, Anaesthesia. Who made and developed this great discovery?, pp. 4-5. Colton, A True History of the Discovery of Anaesthesia, pp. 3-4. Colton, A True History of the Discovery of Anaesthesia, pp. 3-4. Archer, Life and Letters, p. 109. Archer, Life and Letters, pp. 119-121. Archer, Life and Letters, pp. 131-134. Archer, Life and Letters, pp. 136-142.

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