MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS 167 



scientific curiosities and subjects for lecture-room 

 experiment." Had they been followed up by further 

 experiments and demonstrations the advent of pain- 

 less surgery would have been much earlier. They 

 were vague foreshadowings of this important event. 



The demonstration, the earliest use and the com- 

 munication of the method of anaesthesia, is an Amer- 

 ican achievement. In 1844, Dr. Horace Wells of 

 Hartford, Connecticut, experimented with nitrous 

 oxide and began to use it for the painless extraction of 

 teeth in his dental practice; but, owing to an un- 

 successful experiment he became discouraged and did 

 not follow the matter very far. He also experi- 

 mented upon himself with ether but gave it up be- 

 cause he regarded its inhalation as too disagreeable. 



Wells communicated his observations to the 

 Boston dentist, Dr. W. T. G. Morton, who acted 

 upon the suggestion with great enthusiasm and 

 energy. Dr. Morton thought that sulphuric ether 

 was probably a more promising agent than nitrous 

 oxide gas and experimented with it extensively. 

 After experiments on animals, and on patients in 

 his dental practice, he became convinced of its 

 reliability and, in September of 1846, he went to the 

 Boston surgeon, Dr. J. G. Warren, and requested 



