Horace Wells

The American dentist Horace Wells (1815-1848) was the first practitioner to publicly advocate the use of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic and one of the first to use an anesthetic.

Horace Wells was born in Hartford, Vt., on Jan. 21, 1815. He attended schools in Hopkinton and Walpole, N. H., and Amherst, Mass. There were no dental schools, and his education in dentistry was gained through study with several practicing dentists.

Wells was probably a traveling dentist before settling in Hartford, Conn., in 1836, where he developed a large practice. In 1838 he published An Essay on Teeth, Comprising a Brief Description of Their Formation, Disease, and Proper Treatment.

Wells was actively interested in finding some method of reducing the pain of dental procedures. Nitrous oxide had been discovered in the 18th century, but its potential value as an anesthetic was, for the most part, overlooked. Instead, nitrous oxide was valued because it produced a state of euphoria, and "laughing gas" parties were common in the 19th century. On Dec. 10, 1844, Wells attended one of these parties and witnessed a man under the influence of the gas injure himself and yet feel no pain. The following day Wells had a tooth pulled after inhaling the gas and felt no pain. After several experiments he arranged to demonstrate his discovery before a group of medical students and physicians in Boston, but the demonstration was not completely successful because an insufficient amount of nitrous oxide was administered. Although rebuffed by those in attendance because of this failure, Wells returned to Hartford and continued his use of the gas.

In 1846 William Morton used ether as an anesthetic and claimed credit as the discoverer of anesthesia. In 1846 Wells went to Europe to make his work known there and in 1847 presented his claim as the discoverer of anesthesia to several French scientific societies. His claim was generally acknowledged in France, and in later years it was also recognized in the United States. In 1847 Wells returned to the United States and published his claim in A History of the Discovery of the Application of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether, and Other Vapors to Surgical Operations.

Wells continued his study of anesthesia and was led to experiment with chloroform. These experiments brought on a state of mental derangement that resulted in a hostile act for which Wells was arrested. He committed suicide on Jan. 23, 1848.

Further Reading

Considerable information on Wells is in W. Harry Archer, Life and Letters of Horace Wells (1944), but there is no full biography of him. A centenary celebration of Wells's discovery was held in 1944, and the proceedings were edited by William J. Gies and published as American Dental Association, Horace Wells Centenary Committee, Horace Wells, Dentist: Father of Surgical Anesthesia (1948).

American dentist who was the first to use nitrous oxide to anesthetize patients during oral surgery.

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Dr. Horace Wells

Horace Wells (January 21, 1815 – January 24, 1848) was an American dentist who pioneered the use of anaesthesia in dentistry, specifically nitrous oxide (or laughing gas).

Contents 1 Life 2 Recognition 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 Gallery 7 External links

Life

Born in Hartford, Vermont, Wells was educated in Walpole, New Hampshire before studying dentistry in Boston. After obtaining a degree, Wells set up a practice in Hartford, Connecticut, with an associate named William T. G. Morton, who would become famous for his use of ether as an anesthesia on October 18, 1846.

Wells first bore witness to the effects of laughing gas in 1844 when he volunteered to have it demonstrated on him by Gardner Quincy Colton, a member of a traveling circus. Wells felt nothing, and was the first patient to be operated on under anesthesia, having his tooth extracted later that year by his associate, John Riggs.^[1] He then began utilising it on his own patients. He did not attempt to patent the discovery because he stated that pain relief should be 'as free as the air'.

He gave a demonstration to medical students at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1845. However, the gas was improperly administered and the patient cried out in pain. The audience of students jeered at Wells and left the theatre chanting "Humbug! Humbug!" Because of this embarrassment, Wells was discredited in the medical community. Later, however, Wells successfully had one of his own teeth removed while using inhalant anesthesia, proving its uses.^[2]

After this disgrace, Wells gave up dentistry and became a travelling salesman for the next two years, wandering Connecticut and selling canaries, shower baths and other household items.^{[citation needed]} In 1847, he left for Paris after being given a demonstration on anesthesia by his prosperous former partner William Morton.

Sometime after returning to the United States, Wells became addicted to chloroform. At that time the effects of sniffing chloroform and ether were not known. ^{[3][clarification needed]} In January 1848, Wells self-experimented with chloroform for a week. He went crazy loopy mad. One day, delirious, Wells rushed out into the street and threw sulfuric acid over the clothing of two prostitutes. He was committed to New York's infamous Tombs Prison. As the influence of the drug waned, Wells' mind started to clear. In despair, he realised the horror of what he had done. Wells then committed suicide, slitting an artery in his leg with a razor after inhaling an analgesic dose of chloroform to blot out the pain.^[4]

Wells is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.

Recognition

The American Dental Association honored Wells, posthumously in 1864, as the discoverer of modern anesthesia, and the American Medical Association recognized his achievement in 1870.^[5]

A monument to Horace Wells was raised in the Place des États-Unis, Paris.

Hartford, Connecticut has a statute of Horace Wells in Bushnell Park.

See also

• Dental anesthesiology
• Humphry Davy
• Crawford Long
• James Young Simpson
• Place des États-Unis

References

1. ^ Shklar, G; Carranza, FA: The Historical Background of Periodontology. In Newman, MG; Takei, HH; Carrana FA, editors: Carranza’s Clinical Periodontology, 9th Edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 2002. page 7.
2. ^ "Miniature Portrait of Horace Wells". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=113. Retrieved 2008-06-30. 
3. ^ Smith, Ken. Raw Deal. Blast Books: New York, 1998. pp. 62-3.
4. ^ "Suicide of Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, U.S". Providence Medical and Surgical Journal. 1848-05-31. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2487383. Retrieved 16 April 2009. 
5. ^ Horace Wells

Further reading

• Fenster, Julie M. (2001). Ether Day — The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060195231. 

*Musto, David F., "They Inhaled", New York Times, August 12, 2001 (review of Ether Day)

• Wells, Horace (1847). A History of the Discovery of the Application of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether, and Other Vapors to Surgical Operations. Hartford: J. Gaylord Wells. http://books.google.com/books?id=exNtlBi8T4EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Horace+Wells#PPP1,M1. 

Gallery

Horace Wells Plaque

Horace Wells Monument

External links

• Dr Horace Wells (1815-1848) Accessed: 2008-06-17
• Horace Wells website
• Vermont History - Horace Wells

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