Horace Wells
870011
222655016
2008-06-30T13:31:23Z
160.111.254.11
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[[Image:Horace Wells plaque - Hartford, CT.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Horace Wells]]
[[Image:Horace Wells Monument, Hartford CT.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Horace Wells Monument]]
'''Horace Wells''' ([[January 21]], [[1815]] – [[January 24]], [[1848]]) was an American [[dentist]] who pioneered the use of [[anaesthesia]] in dentistry, specifically [[nitrous oxide]] (or [[nitrous oxide|laughing gas]]).
==Life==
Born in [[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|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 travelling [[circus]]. Wells felt nothing, and 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.<ref name="NMAH">{{cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=113|title=Miniature Portrait of Horace Wells|publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution|accessdate=2008-06-30}}</ref>
After this disgrace, Wells gave up dentistry and became a travelling [[sales]]man for the next two years, wandering Connecticut and selling canaries, [[shower]] baths and other household items. In [[1847]], he left for [[Paris]] after being given a demonstration on anesthesia by his prosperous former partner [[William Morton]].
While in Europe, selling anesthesia for Morton and acting as a European expert on the subject, Wells became addicted to [[chloroform]]. In January 1848, Wells self-experimented with chloroform for a week. He became increasingly deranged. One day, delirious, Wells rushed out into the street and threw [[sulfuric acid]] over the clothing of two [[prostitute]]s. He was committed to New York's infamous [[The Tombs|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.
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.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/322/000161836/ Horace Wells]</ref>
==See also==
*[[James Young Simpson]]
*[[Dental Anesthesiology]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
*[http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/images/horace-wells.html Dr Horace Wells (1815-1848)] Accessed: [[2008-06-17]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Horace}}
[[Category:American dentists]]
[[Category:Anesthesiologists]]
[[Category:Doctors who committed suicide]]
[[Category:Suicides in the United States]]
[[Category:1815 births]]
[[Category:1848 deaths]]
[[Category:Suicides by sharp instrument]]
[[Category:Dentists]]
[[Category:Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut)]]
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