Today in Technology History
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January 24
Horace Wells (1815-1848) A few days ago, we began the story of Horace Wells, a pioneer in the use of anesthesia during painful dental procedures. Wells began experimenting with nitrous oxide -- laughing gas -- during tooth extractions in 1844, but the next year he was humiliated during a demonstration of his technique when a patient cried out in pain despite the gas Wells had administered.
Wells kept using nitrous oxide on his own patients, but after that embarrassing incident he gave up on trying to inform the medical profession. Meanwhile, a dentist named William Morton -- a former partner in Wells's dental practice -- started to get attention for using anesthesia on his own patients.
William Thomas Green Morton (1819-1868) Just to be clear, Morton didn't steal Wells's idea -- in fact, Morton had encouraged Wells to publicize his discovery. And Morton used a different technique: while Wells used laughing gas as an anesthetic agent, Morton used ether instead. But clearly, Wells was using anesthesia first, thus he deserves some credit.
Doctors across North America and Europe quickly started using anesthesia during surgeries. Not wanting Morton to get all the glory, Wells wrote articles and pamphlets making the case for his own priority -- he even exaggerated, falsely claiming that he had experimented with ether before Morton -- but this did little to boost his reputation.
Finally, Wells started experimenting with chloroform, perhaps hoping to find a better anesthetic. Unfortunately, he started inhaling chloroform himself; he may have become addicted and he feared he was becoming deranged. While under the influence of chloroform on his 33rd birthday in 1848, he became violent and hurled acid on two prostitutes in New York City. He was arrested, and while in jail he killed himself during the night of January 23-24 by cutting his thigh with a razor. It was apparently a painless death, however, since the anesthesia pioneer clutched a rag with chloroform fumes to his face during the suicide.
Related links:
This page gives more background on the relationship between Wells and Morton.
Other people also claimed credit for discovering anesthesia, including the New England doctor described here.
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