No Laughing Matter

Nobody looks forward to visiting a dentist. Not even a dentist. Way back in 1844, an American dentist Horace Wells decided it was time he had one of his teeth extracted for a change. But he wasn’t willing to go through the pain his patients had to endure. So Wells put himself to sleep with nitrous oxide (or laughing gas) before the operation! And that’s the origin of the first form of anaesthetic. Two years later, one of Well’s pupils William Morton invented the first anaesthetic machine. It consisted of a jar that contained ether soaked sponges. Anaesthetic gas vaporized from these sponges into a breathing tube, which led to a breathing sack. This sack had to be placed over the patient’s mouth. Sounds complicated, right? But sure worth killing the pain.