An American dentist, born in Vermont and educated in Boston, Horace
Wells was one of the pioneers in the field of anesthesia. Weary of
screaming patients, (it was known to upset him terribly, he often
debated leaving the field of dentistry altogether), he was one of the
first practitioners to see the value of nitrous oxide or laughing gas as
an anesthetic.
After a failed experiment and falling out of favor with the medical
community, Wells became a traveling anesthetic salesman and European
expert for his former partner, Gardner Quincy Colton. His
‘investigations’ led to a chloroform addiction that would be his
down-fall. In 1848, delirious and deranged after a week of
self-experimentation, Wells ran into the street and assaulted two
prostitutes with sulfuric acid. He was arrested and confined at New
York’s infamous Tombs Prison. Recovering from the drug induced
psychosis; the true horror of his actions came home to roost. Unable to
live with this shame, Wells committed suicide by first inhaling a
substantial dose of chloroform and then slitting his femoral artery.
No comments:
Post a Comment