Horace Wells’ Demonstration of Nitrous Oxide in Boston

Horace Wells, a dentist in Hartford, Connecticut, first used nitrous oxide in dentistry in December 1844. A few weeks later he travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, to demonstrate to physicians and dentists the use of nitrous oxide in painful procedures. Wells’ unsuccessful demonstration of nitrous oxide for the extraction of a tooth is well known, but other details of this trip are poorly understood. A description of Wells’ visit to Boston was compiled using information from 21 statements and 5 newspaper notices. The precise date and location of Wells’ demonstration could not be determined. There is no primary evidence that Wells’ demonstration occurred in the surgical amphitheater (Ether Dome) at Massachusetts General Hospital. Wells’ demonstration of nitrous oxide probably occurred around the end of January 1845, in a public hall on Washington Street, Boston.

Small Hours in the Meatpacking District

New York's Meatpacking District, on Manhattan's west side south of Fourteenth Street, has gone through several incarnations. In the early twentieth century, it was home to hundreds of butchers and processors. During the past decade, development exploded, and today, only seven meat wholesalers and distributers remain. The area was designated a historical district in 2003, and even this remnant will soon diminish, displaced by a new home for the Whitney Museum. But between the hours of 2:00 and 10:00 a.m., tractor-trailers still idle on Washington Street, whole carcasses are loaded into large refrigerated workrooms, and men who commute from Jersey and outlying boroughs still labor under cold fluorescents over bloodied power saws. A photo essay showing activities in DeBragga and Spitler, Inc. and J.T. Jobbagy, Inc., two of the remaining meat wholesalers and butchers in New York's Meatpacking district. Photographer Barry Goldstein is the author of Gray Land: Soldiers on War (W.W. Norton & Co., 2009). He is Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Visiting Professor of Humanities at Williams College.