Wells, Horace (1815–1848)

US dentist who discovered nitrous oxide anaesthesia and, in 1844, was the first to use the gas in dentistry.

Wells was born in Hartford, Vermont. He set up a dental practice in Hartford, Connecticut, in partnership with William Morton, who later pioneered the use of ether as an anaesthetic. In 1844, while watching an exhibition of the effects of laughing gas (nitrous oxide) staged by a travelling show, Wells observed that the gas induced anaesthesia. He tried it first on himself and then used it to perform tooth extractions on his patients. In 1845 Wells went to Boston where, with the help of Morton (then no longer his partner) and others, he arranged to give a demonstration at the Massachusetts General Hospital. However, the patient cried out and, although the patient later claimed to have felt no pain, the audience believed that the demonstration had failed.

After this, Wells gave up his dental practice and became a travelling sales representative, selling canaries and then showerbaths in Connecticut. Once Morton had given a successful demonstration of ether anaesthesia, Wells went to Paris 1847 to try to establish his priority in using anaesthesia. At about this time he also began experimenting on himself with nitrous oxide, ether, and various other intoxicating chemicals; as a result he became addicted to chloroform. He committed suicide in prison.