Northwestern University Dental School - Purple and Gold Yearbook (Evanston, IL)

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' -. ,F , DR. I-IORACE XYELLS. .f ,j 5 f,, .V, If ff' 4' f

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Wells he did not realize that he had wounded himself. W Dr. Wells then said to a friend near by, and who had been an eye-witness to all that had happened, I believe a person, by inhaling a sufficient quantity of that gas, could have a toothextracted or a leg amp-utated and not feel p-ainf' On their way home fromthe lecture that evening Dr. Wells told his wife that he was so thoroughly con- vinced of the fact that a tooth could be extracted without pain while under the inliuence of laughing gas that he was going to take the gas the following day and have a too-th extra.cted. , Up-on arriving home and before retiring he went 'to see his friend and former student, Dr. Riggs, who was a neighboring dentist, to te-ll him of his intention to i o take the gas and have a troublesome tooth extracted the foll-owing morning. . Dr. Riggs tried to dissuade him from taking the gas. Wells' mind' was made up. He determined to test the anesthetic effects of the gas upon his own person. Early next morning,iDecember II, I844, Dr. Wells called upon Dr. Colton and engaged him to go to his -office at IO o'clo-ck a. m.. and give- him the gas. He also called upon Dr. Riggs and requested him to be present to extract the tooth and be a witness to the operation. At the appointed ho-ur all were at VVe1lls, office. VVells seated himself in his own o-perating-cha.ir, a.nd Dr. Colton proceeded to administer the gas. At the proper moment Riggs extracted a large upper molar tooth. Dr. Wfells showed no evidence of having suffered any pain. He remained unconscious for a few moments, and on coming to he ex- claimed: A new era in tooth-pulling! It did not hurt me as much as the prick ofa ping it is the greatest discovery ever made. This painless operation, performed upon his own person, proved to Dr. VVells beyond all doubt that nitrous oxide gas was an anes- thetic agent, and that operations could be performed without pain under its iniiuence. He at once c-onstructed an apparatus for its manufacture, and introduced the use of gas in his dental practice, extracting teeth daily without pain. Dr. Wfells, after using the gas successfully for some time, fe-lt that the benefits of his discovery were of great importance, and should be laid before the medical and dental professions and the public in general the world over. He accordin-gly visited England and France. Un Ianuary 12, 1848, the Paris Medical Society voted that to Dr. Horace lVells of 194

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ERECTEIJ IN HONOR on DR. HORACE XV1a1.1.s IN l3us11N1c1,1. lixlzu 1'IAR'1'Fo1z1u, CoNNmt'1'1cv'1'.