The Real Discoverer of Anesthesia

On the night of December 10, 1844 a Hartford dentist named Horace Wells brought his wife, Elizabeth, to a laughing gas show. This laughing gas show was performed by gardener Quincy Colton, who at the time was traveling New England giving demonstrations on the effects of nitrous oxide. The show was supposed to be entertainment as subjects would walk around stage recklessly because they were under the influence of nitrous oxide. Over the course of the show one of the "gassed" volunteers hit his leg against a wooden settee. Since he was under the influence of this nitrous oxide gas, he noticed that he felt no pain until the gas effects wore off. Wells saw the importance of this and following the show he asked Colton to try out the nitrous oxide to a teeth pulling. When they reconvened at Wells office, one of Wells' colleagues pulled a tooth of Wells while he was under the influence of nitrous oxide. Following the molar extraction Wells awoke from his sleep under nitrous oxide to exclaim, "Ah, a new era in tooth pulling." Little did Wells know that he had not only discovered anesthesia for dentistry but for all medicine as well.

Over the next month Wells developed an anesthesia protocol more effectively and had extracted over 15 different patient’s teeth using nitrous oxide. After becoming more confident with his discovery, Wells decided in February 1845 to go to Boston and present his findings. In Boston Wells met up with William T. G. Morton, a former apprentice of his now turned physician. Morton helped to set up a lecture for Wells at Massachusetts General Hospital. After several days of preparing the lecture, the medical class was to watch Wells perform a tooth-pulling for a student volunteer. The tragedy that ensued was described by Wells in the Hartford current on Dec. 9, 1846: "A large number of students, with several physicians, met to see the operation performed ---one of their number to be the patient. Unfortunately for the experiment, the gas bag was by mistake withdrawn much too soon, and he was but partially under its influence when the tooth was extracted. He testified that he experienced some pain, but not as much as usually attends the operation. There was no other patient present, that the experiment might be repeated, and as several expressed their opinion that it was a humbug affair (which in fact was all the thanks I got for this gratuitous service), I accordingly left the next morning for home."

After failing in his lecture to the medical school, Wells was essentially booed out of the lecture auditorium. This fact devastated and embarrassed Wells. When he returned to Hartford, he sold his house and sold his dental practice. Hoping that he might find some good news on the use of nitrous oxide for anesthesia, he felt tragedy again when his apprentice, Morton wrote to him. Morton had taken his idea of anesthesia and had used a different compound, ether, to induce a painless sleep. Massachusetts General Hospital had welcomed Morton's "innovation" and Morton had already used the ether anesthesia in a hundred and sixty cases for extracting teeth. Morton had thus stolen Wells' invention and Wells was obviously embittered because his apprentice had stolen his idea. After trying to present his case for anesthesia in Paris, France, Wells left his family and moved to New York. Insane due to the injustices done upon him, Wells was put in jail for hurling sulfuric acid at prostitutes in New York City. While in jail he inhaled chloroform anesthesia and killed himself by cutting his left groin artery with a razor. Wells had been driven in madness to a large part by his unsuccessful presentation in Boston, and with the fame that had been acquired for his old apprentice, Morton.