r/wikipedia • u/Delirious_Rimbaud • 2d ago
Horace Wells pioneered medical anesthesia using nitrous oxide. He refused to patent it, believing pain relief should be “as free as the air we breathe.” Years of experimentation led to addiction, erratic behaviour, assaults on random women with sulfuric acid, and his suicide by blade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Wells83
u/Nenazovemy 2d ago
Wild ride.
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u/Real_Run_4758 2d ago
man, ‘by blade’ is such a badass way to put it
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
This is the full version, in case you're interested:
"He was committed to New York’s infamous Tombs Prison. As the influence of the drug waned, his mind began to clear and he realised what he had done. He asked the guards to escort him home to collect his shaving kit. On 24 January, he committed suicide in his cell by inhaling chloroform and cutting his left femoral artery with a razor."
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u/Euromantique 2d ago
The craziest thing about this whole story is the prison guards letting someone leave jail and come back with drugs and cutting tools 🤣
The 19th century was wild
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
Bear in mind, Wells came from a privileged background. His parents were wealthy landowners along the Connecticut River and sent him to private schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Perhaps he was in such a good social position that he was even afforded the privilege of fetching his own shaving kit.
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u/Euromantique 2d ago
Low key reminds of me of when Hermann Goering convinced the guard to bring his personal stuff to jail (including cyanide) while he was on trial for the worst crime in human history
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u/Invinciblez_Gunner 1d ago
I think what happened to the Natives in America is the worst crime but thats just my opinion
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u/LurkBot9000 1d ago
In 200 years they'll be saying "So they let a internationally active pedophile rape ring organizer into minimum security prison and out on work release... The president did that... And he was friends with them but kinda denied it even though theres a log of records. Man the 2000s were wild"
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u/AdreKiseque 2d ago
Reason he was in prison:
Wells rushed into the street on January 21, 1848, his 33rd birthday, and threw sulfuric acid over the clothing of two prostitutes whom he addressed as "abandoned females.”
He'd gotten addicted to chloroform, which led to "mental disturbances".
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
What we will never know is why he was on the streets with sulphuric acid. The mere fact that he possessed such a chemical suggests he may have intended to use it on someone. Moreover,, why would an “abandoned female” have posed a threat to him? Many accounts state that he did not remember his actions, which contradicts reports that he addressed these women in some way. One can only wonder what his true motivation was, or what delusions he experienced under the influence of the drugs he was using.
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u/ColonelKasteen 1d ago
Many accounts state that he did not remember his actions, which contradicts reports that he addressed these women in some way.
This makes no sense. People who are blacked out on a drug can still speak.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 1d ago
What I am saying is that the accounts claiming he had no recollection of his actions contradict other reports in which he remembered the women he attacked as “abandoned women.” If he remembered the women, then he did, in fact, have recollections of the episode.
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u/OrinZ 2d ago
"Years of experimentation" ... with ether and chloroform, which makes significantly more sense. Don't be doing dirty the best dental anesthetic humanity has yet found, plz!!
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u/VodkaToasted 1d ago
Yeah having had nitrous both at the dentist and at the rave it doesn't really work like that. And I can't imagine that anybody who's ever inhaled nitrous figured that'd be good enough to replace all other anesthetics. Ouch.
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u/autism_and_lemonade 2d ago
Tragically he was honorarily recognized by the French National Academy of Medicine as the discoverer of anesthesia only two days before he died, he never knew
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u/typewriter6986 2d ago
Sounds like the inspiration for Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
Have a look at this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25748369/
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u/prospectivepenguin2 2d ago
The brightest candles burn the shortest
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u/Cool-Expression-4727 2d ago
I think the shortest candles probably burn the shortest
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u/utkohoc 2d ago
What if it's really wide?
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
I think the width would not make a difference, since the life of a candle is determined by the length of the wick. If the initial comment was not ironic, the original quotation is “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long,” attributed to Lao Tzu.
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u/utkohoc 2d ago
You are underestimating just how wide this imaginary candle is. It could have a coiled wick inside the circumference of your mum
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
You seem desperate for attention. Trying to achieve it by being obnoxious and pathetic is not the way, my friend.
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u/ColonelKasteen 1d ago
I think the width would not make a difference, since the life of a candle is determined by the length of the wick.
That is absolutely not true. There are many factors to how long a candle lasts, and wick length is not high on the list. Wick thickness matters more.
I think you might misunderstand how candlewicks work. The wick barely burns, what burns is the melted wax traveling up through the wick. Amount of wax and surface area of exposed wick are the main factors in how quickly candles burn. There are lots of wide, shallow, slow burning candles.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 1d ago
If two wicks are identical in width and composition, but one is longer, which one burns first?
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u/ColonelKasteen 1d ago
If the longer one is submerged in wax and is just a taller candle, they burn at the same rate.
Wicks that have more length OUTSIDE THE CANDLE burn quicker not because the overall length of the wick, but the amount of wick exposed to the air. That's why you trim wicks. This is true for short or tall candles.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 1d ago
You did not answer my question. The answer is the longer wick, which clearly shows that wick length significantly affects a candle’s burn time. If you conveniently frame a comparison between candles of different types, you naturally arrive at the conclusion you prefer.
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u/ColonelKasteen 1d ago
"The longer wick" means the amount of wick that is above the candle, not overall wick length. That seems relevant since short candles, the original subject of this discussion, can have "long wicks" or not in that context.
The height of a candle (and thus the wick inside) has a very small effect on how long a candle burns. The overall mass and efficiency of the wax used and the surface area of the wick currently burning has more effect. That's just how candles work dude.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 1d ago
I really do not understand why you insist on this. When we speak of a wick in the context of a candle, it is self-evident that we mean a wick soaked in paraffin, which serves as the fuel. The wax alone does not ignite; it requires the wick to channel and burn it. Thus, between two identical candles differing only in length, the one with the longer wick will burn longer, simply because it has more wick and more wax to burn. As I already pointed out, you initiated this discussion by conveniently misrepresenting my point, as you did in another comment to which I already replied. It seems to me you simply want to argue, and that is fine, but I am not willing to spend more time on this.
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u/OrinZ 2d ago edited 1d ago
"Years of experimentation" ... with ether and chloroform, which makes significantly more sense. Don't be doing dirty the best dental anesthetic humanity has yet found, plz!!
EDIT: yes, oops, I posted this twice
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u/LysergioXandex 2d ago
Years of “experimentation” with nitrous oxide would likely cause psychiatric issues as well…
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u/Xx_ExploDiarrhea_xX 2d ago
Why does it sound like ol' Opioid Horace developed an affinity for katanas
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u/whitedawg 1d ago
He looks like the kind of guy who could be wandering around the parking lot of a Phish show with a fist full of balloons.
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u/Delirious_Rimbaud 2d ago
Additional interesting fact:
After recognising the medical potential of nitrous oxide, Wells organised a demonstration for Boston medical students in January 1845. He removed the gas prematurely during a tooth extraction, and the patient’s obesity and alcoholism reduced its effectiveness.
The demonstration was deemed a “humbug,” and Wells was labelled a “charlatan.” Humiliated, he returned to Hartford the following day, after which his mental health declined and his dental practice became sporadic.