The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wells, Horace
WELLS, Horace, American dentist: b.
Hartford, Vt., 21 Jan. 1815; d New York,
24 Jan. 1848. He studied dentistry in Boston
and practised it there until 1836, then went
to Hartford, Conn. For years he made investigations
and experiments in search of an agent
for preventing pain in the extraction of teeth,
and finally became convinced that he had found
such an agent in nitrous-oxide gas. In 1844
he made a practical test by having one
own teeth extracted while he was under the
influence of his supposed anæsthetic and the
operation confirmed his belief in the discovery.
Thenceforth he used nitrous-oxide gas in his
practice. He published “A History of the
Application of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether and
Other Vapors to Surgical Operations” (1847).
His claims to the discovery of anæsthesia were
controverted in the interest of G. Q. Colton,
C. T. Jackson, W. T. G. Morton and J. C
Warren (qq.v.), to each of whom some
honors of its introduction belong. Wells may
have had a predeceessor in C. W. Long (q.v.),
but with regard to the first surgical use
anaæsthetic, all other names must yield priority
to his. He became mentally unbalanced while
advocating his claims in New York, was taken
into custody and committed suicide. A statue
of Wells stands in Bushnell Park, Hartford,
Conn. See .