Journal of anesthesia history
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Biography Historical Article
From Colton's guess to Andrews' table to Bunnell's paper to Spencer's card: Misleading the public about nitrous oxide's safety.
Famous for pioneering the oxygenation of nitrous-oxide anesthetics, Chicago surgeon Edmund Andrews trusted the Manhattan-based Colton Dental Association's claim that they had conducted 75,000 nitrous-oxide anesthetics without a single mortality. Those statistics were cited in Andrews' 1870 journal article on anesthetic risks and then, remarkably, advertised on the business cards of dentist James M. Spencer, Jr., of Gouverneur, New York.
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Biography Historical Article
"To nitrous oxide, chloroform gives way": Was Dr. W.J.A. DeLancey's poetic license in advertising…inspired?
Born in New Hampshire but raised in Massachusetts, 14-year-old William J. A. DeLancey became "the man of the house" after the accidental death of his father. ⋯ There he practiced the Coltonian method of testing freshly made nitrous oxide upon himself before using the gas upon patients. Before his training at Colton Dental, DeLancey had advertised in Centralia newspapers only in prose. After he began administering laughing gas to his patients and to himself, DeLancey waxed poetic and began advertising in heroic couplets in local newspapers.