466 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 



this condition is .attained while the subject is still in the ecstatic 

 state and endowed with more than normal power, and it was the 

 observation of this fact which led Dr. Horace Wells of Hartford, 

 in 1844, to one of the most important discoveries ever made. Dr. 

 Colton,. the gentleman who will address you this evening, was 

 present when the idea of Anojsthesia flashed upon the mind of 

 Wells, and will give you all the interesting details of his connec- 

 tion with the experiments then made, Dr. Wells being the first to 

 make a practical test of his theory npon himself. The scientific 

 world have quite generally acknowledged Dr. Wells to be the 

 author of Anaesthesia, The medical profession were at first incredu- 

 lous as to the power of nitrous oxide ; and the inconvenience of 

 making and using it for each case, together with the impression 

 that its efl'ects could not be prolonged, prevented its early adop- 

 tion. Two years after Dr. Wells had demonstrated that eshilerat- 

 ing gas when inhaled destroyed or allayed pain, Dr. Morton, a 

 dentist at one time under Wells, tried, at the suggestion of Dr. 

 Jackson, another exhilerating volatile, ether, which, like nitrous 

 oxide produced the same insensibility to pain. This substance 

 was very soon and quite generally applied by operating surgeons. 

 At a later day a similar application was made of chloroform, a 

 compound first produced by Mr. Samuel Guthrie of Sackett's 

 Harbor, N. Y., in 1832, and first administered by inhalation for 

 the purpose of curing diseased lungs, by Prof. Fisk of Yale Col- 

 lege. Dr. Simpson of Edinburgh, applied it in surgical cases long 

 after Morton and Jackson had used ether. Several other anaesthet- 

 ics have been used. While ether and chloroform are still more 

 generally used, it is evident nitrous oxide is rapidly gaining fiivor, 

 not only among dentists, but among surgeons who have all the 

 facilities for making and using it. 



Dr. G. Q. Colton was introduced to the audience, and after 

 administering nitrous oxide to a person who desired a tooth ex- 

 tracted, and successfully performing the operation, the Dr. gave 

 an interesting account of his first giving the gas to Dr. Wells, the 

 discoverer of Anajsthesia, May 11, 1844. 



The Association then adjourned. 



