Deeply depressed about his missed opportunity, Horace
Wells belatedly tried to promote the use of nitrous oxide in
surgery, but ether anesthesia was already well established
and a new gas, chloroform, was rising in popularity. In
1848, Wells experimented on himself with chloroform for
a week. He was arrested on the streets of New York while
trying to throw sulfuric acid on two prostitutes and
committed suicide in prison at the age of 35 by slashing
an artery, having first anesthetized himself with chloroform.
Although Morton received official recognition as
the discoverer of ether anesthesia, he received little more,
later dying in utter poverty. Even Jackson, whose claim to
priority was perhaps least legitimate, eventually went
insane and spent the last seven years of his life in an
asylum. Ether anesthesia is no longer used in the United
States due to the gas’s overpowering smell, its tendency
to irritate the lungs, and the relatively large quantity of it
required. However, ether anesthesia is still prevalent in
the third world, where access to more sophisticated
anesthesia and equipment is limited. Nitrous oxide anesthesia has won out in the long run despite its
inauspicious beginnings. It is still used in dentistry and sometimes general surgery, although usually in
combination with other drugs.