WELLESLEY COLLEGE WELLS. 



765 



Gen. Jackson to tlie Presidency. He entered the State 

 Legislature in 1827 and served there for eight years. 

 In 18J6 he was made postmaster of Hartford and soon 

 after gave up the management of his newspaper, 

 though he continued to be an active contributor to the 

 press. In !84J lie was made State comptroller. From 

 1846 to 1849 lie was in Washington as chief of a bureau 

 in the navy department. During the Kansas-Nebraska 

 troubles Welles, who had heretofore been an ardent 

 Democrat, opposed the extension of slavery and when 

 the Republican party was formed was one of its earli- 

 est adherents. As chairman of the Connecticut dele- 

 gation to the Chicago convention, in 1800, he contrib- 

 uted to the nomination of Lincoln to the Presidency 

 and was called by the latter to be his secretary of the 

 navy. The civil war greatly enlarged the scope and 

 duties of this department, but Secretary Welles con- 

 ducted it with unflagging zeal, industry, and efficiency. 

 He maintained along 20<)0 miles of coast a blockade as 

 effective as the circii instances would permit, organized 

 on the Mississippi River a fleet of ironclads and trans- 

 ]irts, sent out well-equipped expeditions to various 

 points, and in various ways contributed to the numer- 

 ous victories which added to the renown of the Ameri- 

 can navy. After the war was over. Welles remained 

 in Pres. Johnson's cabinet, and supported his policy of 

 reconstructing the Southern States, thereby losing fa- 

 vor with the Republican party. After his retirement 

 he published " Memoirs of the War " in the Gulii.ri/. 

 He died at Hartford, Feb. II. 1878. 



WELLESLEY COLLEGE, a noted institution for 

 the higher education of women, is in the beautiful vil- 

 lage ut Wellesley, Norfolk co. , Mass., about 15 miles 

 west of Boston. It was founded by Mr. Henry F. 

 Durant, who in 1855 purchased here 300 acres of lurid, 

 which he improved as a park. In 1875 the college 

 hall, which had beeri carefully built under his super- 

 vision, was opened. It is 475 feet long and 150 feet 

 wide at the wings. It is built of brick with free-stone 

 trimmings, and is four stories high, but in some parts 

 a fifth story is added, which serves as a studio ami 

 museum. Bendei this building there are now a Col- 

 lege of Music, Waban Cottage, Simpson Cottage, Stmir 

 Hall, Noruuibega, Freeman Cottage. Welles-Icy has 

 valuable collections of paintings and statuary, which are 

 distributed through the rooms and halls. The library 

 has 25.000 volumes. There are chemical, physical, 

 biological and botanical laboratories, and the rooms 

 used for scientific work have their appropriate collec- 

 tions of books. The college gymnasium was fitted up 

 under the direction of Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, of 

 Harvard University. Adjoining the college grounds 

 is Lake Waban, on which 14 boats are used in summer. 

 Entertainment in winter is furnished by concerts and 

 lectures. The course of study is similar to that pur- 

 sued in American colleges, but special opportunity is 

 given for the study of art and music. Care of the 

 rooms and halls is required of the students, who thus 

 are taught the art ot housekeeping, though they do 

 not perform heavy work. At the opening of the col- 

 lege in 1875, provision had been made for 300 students, 

 but 314 were enrolled in the first year. There were 

 then 28 instructors and officers, Miss Alice E. Freeman 

 being the president. She retired from this position in 

 1888 on her marriage to Prof. F. Palmer, of Harvard 

 University. There are now 75 instructors. The first 

 graduating class numbered 18 and that of 1888 num- 

 bered 60. The total number of students enrolled 

 exceeds 2300, and the graduates 300. Besides Mr. 

 and Mrs. Henry F. Durant. the principal benefactors 

 of the college have been Mr. M. H. Simpson, Mrs. 

 Valeria (}. iMone. and George Smith. 



WELLHAUSEN, Jrurs, German theologian, was 

 born at Hameln-on-the-Weser. Mav 14, 1844. He 

 was educated at Gottingen under Ewald, and there 

 began to lecture on theology in 1870. He was made 

 ordinary professor at Greifswald in 1872, but resigned 

 in 1 882 on account of his divergence from Protestant 



theology. He then entered the philosophical faculty 

 at Halle, and in 1885 accepted a similar position at 

 Marburg. Among his publications are Text dw 

 Biicher Samuels (1871); Ph'irisvKer und Suddiiaeer 

 (1874); Prolegomena ziir Geschichte Israels (1878); 

 Slcizzen mid Vnrurleiten (2 vols., 1884-85). Well- 

 hausen has been the most prominent advocate and 

 exponent of the reconstruct ion of the history of 

 Israel by higher criticism ol th ; Old Testament. He 

 wrote the article on ''Israel " and other articles in the 

 ENCYCLOPAEDIA BR.ITANNICA. 



WELLS. See ARTESIAN WELLS and WATER 

 SUPPLY. 



WELLS, DAVID AMES, economist, was born at 

 Springfield, Mass., June 27, 1827. He graduated at 

 W illiams College in 1846, and at the Lawrence Scien- 

 tific School. Cambridge, in 1851, where he was imme- 

 diately made assistant professor. In 1853 he was en- 

 gaged with Dr. A. A. Hayes, in Boston, in practical 

 chemistry, and in 1850 he obtained patents for improve- 

 ments in bleaching. He was afterwards connected 

 with a publishing firm in New York, and edited the 

 Sjifinf/fii'lil RepuUlam for a year. In 1802 he was 

 sent to Europe on a special commission, and from 1866 

 to 1870 he was a commissioner of the revenue, and 

 produced several very valuable reports. He had now 

 become one of the most pronounced advocates of free 

 trade, and as such received high honor in Europe, 

 being made 1). C. L. by the University of Oxford in 

 1S74 and foreign associate of the French Academy of 

 Political Sciences. He has also been prominent in the 

 movement for civil service reform. He assisted in 

 preparing a History of Williams College (1847); and 

 edited the Annual of Scientific Discovery from 1850 

 to 1805. He also published Fanuliar Science (1856) ; 

 Science of Common Things (1856), and other popular 

 manuals on natural philosophy, chemistry, and 

 geology: Practiad Economies (1885); A Study of 

 Mi.rico (1887); and treaties on tariffs and money. 



WELLS. HORACE (1815-1848), one of the discov- 

 erers of anaesthesia, was born at Hartford, Windsor 

 CO., Vt., Jan. 21, 1815. He studied dentistry at Bos- 

 ton and began to practise it at Hartford, Conn., 1836. 

 Moved by the suffering attending some dental opera- 

 tions, he expressed in 1840 the idea that they might 

 be rendered painless by inhaling nitrous oxide gas. 

 In December, 1844, he attended a lecture on "laughing 

 gas," and noticed that a person to whom the gas was 

 administered, meeting with an accident while under its 

 influence, was unconscious of his hurts. Next day he 

 put this discovery to personal proof by having a molar 

 drawn while under the influence of that gas. From 

 that time he used it in his practice and other Hartford 

 dentists followed his example. Early in 1845 he went 

 to Boston, explained his discovery to Dr. J. C. War- 

 ren's class and attempted to demonstrate, but unluckily 

 removed the gas too soon and the experiment failed 

 and he, discomfited, was ill for weeks. W. T. G. Mor- 

 ton, formerly his pupil and partner, got the idea from 

 him but was persuaded by Dr. C. T. Jackson to use sul- 

 phuric ether instead of nitrous oxide, and applied it in 

 October, 1846, in surgical as well as dental operations. 

 He and Jackson then published and patented their 

 discovery of " letheon " as an anaesthetic and presently 



Quarrelled, each claiming the sole honor from the 

 f rench Institute. Wells sailed for France in Decem- 

 ber and his claims were recognized by resolutions of 

 the Medical Society of Paris after three days' discus- 

 sion. On his return in March, 1817, he put forth a 

 History of the Discover;/, but the embittered contro- 

 versy and experiments with chloroform were too much 

 for his bodily and mental health. He went to New 

 York, but became insane and committed suicide Jan. 

 24, 1848. Hartford erected a statue of Wells in ita 

 park and saluted him as the discoverer of anaesthesia, 

 but this honor must be divided. Priestley discovered 

 nitrous oxide gns in 1790. and Sir H. Davy in his 

 Researcltci (1800) proclaimed a belief that it could be 



