Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-11-24
A FAMOUS DENTIST.


A FAMOUS DENTIST.
The Late @. Q. Cotton First Used Laugh
ing Gas" in Practice.
DR.. Gardner Quincy Cotton, late of
New York city, to whom belongs in
part the credit Of anesthesia by laugh
ing gas, died recently in Rotterdam at
the age of "a. Besides being q dem
tist, DIR. Cotton was a physician, lee
turer, a critic, an electrician and at one
time gold prospector, having gone to
California with the argonauts of 40,
both to search for gold aud to practise
medicine among his fellow adventur-
ers. There is good ground for the be-
lief that he invented the first electric
motor ever run, but it never got be-
yond the model state, though the little
machine which he built worked per-
fectly.
Born in Vermont, the twelfth child
of poor parents, he was able to get
only common school education before
being set to the trade of chairmaking.
All his spare moments were given to
reading and study and with such
good results that when he came to this
city at the age OF 81, in 1885, he added
considerably to his means by writing
for the newspapers until he had saved
enough money to achieve the first great
ambition of his life, course in the
College of Physicians and Surgeons.
After graduation he studied in the Of
flee of DR.. William Parker and two
years later set out upon n lecture
tour, speaking on philosophical and
chemical subjects. His favorite lee
ture was one dealing with electrical
phenomena and the peculiar effects
upon the brain of nitrous oxide rms
which he called laughing gas bsaoose
OF ridiculous performances Of ucrsQus
under Its influence These lect res
he supplemented by expor ineuts Tn
l844 he lectWaa Fla Harttord and
among those cl tLe stage was DR.
! Horace Wei A young man having
/ lnhescd nitrous oxide gas barked his
s1i1s upon chair but felt no pain
GntA the effects Of the gas wore off
TEis-stfGck Dr. Wells sd forc.hlv that
he determined to have a tooth ont
| while under the influence o. she ga.
and the experiment was SO suocess;~-I
| that he published the result OF It.
For long TIME other dentists scOflel
at 1t, but when its efficacy was proved
beyond doubt two other physicians,
Morton and Jackson, put forth claims
to the discovery which was to render
painless the most distressing form of
| dentistry. The controversy which
followed was bitter in its progress and
tragic in It's end, for it drove Drs.
Wells and Morton to suicide and DR..
Jackson to al insane asylum. There
after the use Of nitrous oxide fell
away, but DR.. Cotton revived it some
years later, giving full credit for the
discovery TO Or Wells
~ isis % illustrate tie practica-
->-.s,s os efs-r5r, ~ lty as N--.-.- .---
d. Cotton built a small electrical 10
oduot.rc. which drew a train Of toy
cars around a circular track This
was put away when the inventor Went
west ia IS49 ana never resurrected
until years afterward. In an inpor-
tant patent suit the doctor was called
as n witness aud fshed it out of an old
trunk where it had been for about 40
years. With a little tinkering it ran
as we'll as ever. DR.. Colton's testi-
mopy had vital effect upon the case
on trial, and photographs OF the model
were taken and are now IN the Smith
sonian institution in Washington. AS
a gold digger DR.. Cotton was moder-
ate success only, but as one Of the very
few physicians among the nrgonauts
he made good thing out Of his ven
ture In 1850 Governor Riley ap-
pointed him the first justice of the
peace In California. Returning east
shortly after he resumed his lecture
tours, and early in the Civil war hs
got out the Cotton war maps. In 1853
he established the Cotton Dental as
sociation, and it is said that he and
his assistants have pulled from the
painful mouths of Sufferers more than
million undesirable teeth. DR.. Col
ton published many pamphlets upon
literary, philosophical aud theological
subjects, the best known of which is
his monograph on shakespeare and
the Bible" He left large fortune.