Gardner Quincy Colton (February 7, 1814,

Georgia, Vermont Georgia is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 4,845 at the 2020 census. Geography The town occupies the southwest corner of Franklin County, bordered to the south by Chittenden County. The western border of th ...

– August 10, 1898,

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland) was an American showman, medicine man, lecturer, and former medical student who pioneered the use of

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has ...

, or

laughing gas Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has ...

, in dentistry. After making $535 from his first public demonstration of nitrous oxide, Colton left medical school to travel the country giving lectures and presentations. On December 10, 1844, he gave a performance in Hartford, Connecticut, at which one of his audience volunteers injured his leg, but did not feel the pain because of the effects of the gas. Connecticut dentist

Horace Wells Horace Wells (January 21, 1815 – January 24, 1848) was an American dentist who pioneered the use of anesthesia in dentistry, specifically the use of nitrous oxide (or laughing gas). Early life Wells was the first of three children of H ...

was in attendance, realized the possibilities of using nitrous oxide in dental surgery, and obtained a supply of the gas from Colton. In 1849, Gardner Colton went to California, where his brother

Walter Colton Reverend Walter Colton (May 7, 1797 – January 22, 1851) was an American clergyman and writer from Vermont who served as the first American Alcalde (mayor) of Monterey, California. He worked as an editor for newspapers in Washington, D.C. and ...

was the Alcalde of

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...

, to join the California Gold Rush. He was unsuccessful in finding gold, and returned to the East. In partnership with two dentists, he set up the Colton Dental Association, which promoted the use of nitrous oxide in dental procedures and became a thriving business. Between 1864 and 1897, Colton and his associates used nitrous oxide in tens of thousands of tooth extractions.

References

*G.B. Smith and N.P. Hirsch, "Gardner Quincy Colton: pioneer of nitrous oxide anesthesia", ''Anesthesia & Analgesia'', March 1991, pp. 382–91. * Julie M. Fenster, ''Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It'' (2001). **John Jay Colton, The Physiological Action Of Nitrous Oxide Gas, As Shown By Experiments Upon Man And Lower Animals: Together With Suggestions As To Its Safety, Uses And Abuses. Philadelphia: Samuel S. White, 1871. Available in Google Books or Reproduced by www.amazon.com/Physiological-Action-Nitrous-Experiments-Animals/dp/1279538031/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492010006&sr=1-1&keywords=nitrous+oxide+by+Colton

External links

Gardner Colton biography, general-anaesthesia.com "What A Gas: Part II", Historyhouse.com (includes more references)

David F. Musto David Franklin Musto (January 8, 1936 – October 8, 2010) was an American expert on U.S. drug policy and the War on Drugs who served as a government adviser on the subject during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter. He wrote extensively on the hi ...

, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', August 12, 2001 (review of ''Ether Day'')
Encyclopædia Britannica entryShowman or Scientist?
from th
Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colton, Gardner Quincy 1814 births 1898 deaths People from Georgia, Vermont American anesthesiologists