Dr. Horace Wells - Cedar Hill Cemetery - Hartford, CT - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

The grave of Dr. Horace Wells contains a simple headstone which is inscribed:

DR. HORACE WELLS
JANUARY 21, 1815,
JANUARY 24, 1848

Near the grave site is the Horace Wells Memorial. It is a beautiful rectangular monument with a high relief sculpture of a woman on both of the shorter sides. Underneath the woman is are the inscriptions I SLEEP TO AWAKE and I AWAKE TO GLORY. The front has a relief sculpture of an angel delivering anesthesia to a patient with the inscription THERE WILL BE NO PAIN. On the back of the memorial is the inscription:

HORACE WELLS
1815 - 1848
DISCOVERER OF ANAESTHESIA

Dr. Horace Wells (1815-1848) was a dentist practicing in Hartford. He is credited with discovering anesthesia after experimenting upon himself with the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), N₂O. Dr. Wells successfully demonstrated the anesthesia value of nitrous oxide by having his own tooth extracted by an associate, John Riggs. He then used the procedure on his patients. He refused to patent the discovery because he believed that pain relief should be in the public domain.

Unfortunately, when he attempted to demonstrate surgery under anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital to an audience of doctors, the nitrous oxide was improperly administered by the anesthesiologist and the patient cried out in pain. Thoroughly embarrassed, Wells returned to Hartford, began to shut down his practice, became ill, and died a few years later on January 24, 1848.

Description: see long description Date of birth: 01/21/1815 Date of death: 01/24/1848 Area of notoriety: Medicine Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 7 am until sunset. Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.

We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. However, only respectful photographs are allowed. Logs which include photographs representing any form of disrespectful behavior (including those showing personal items placed on or near the grave location) will be subject to deletion.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   02/11/2023 WN1E visited it