The story of the man who discovered "Laughing Gas" for Dentistry....a laughing matter?

When I was a freshman at the UCLA School of Dentistry they told us a story of Dr. Horace Wells.  He was a Connecticut dentist who had the pleasure of trying Nitrous Oxide while attending a sideshow at a traveling circus.  He was so surprised by his lack of sensation he had an associate (John Riggs) pull one of his own teeth while under the influence of this novice gas. He felt NO pain!!  
     Imagine discovering a way to work on patients (medically or dentally) without pain.  This was 1845 and no such method was available.  Revolutionary was too small a word to use.  This was beyond anyone's wildest dreams.  Horace really thought he was onto something.  Since he tried this on himself, he decided to try it on 12-15  patients.  It was a success! Almost all the patients felt no pain.  He now wanted to show the world.  Friends told him to patent the idea and he would be rich.  Horace always responded the same way, " pain relief should be as free as the air!" He didn't want riches, he wanted to help his fellow man.
    Horace went to the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  in front of a room of 200 dentists, surgeons and students he asks for a volunteer.  A man with a toothache raised his hand and was brought up and sat in a chair in the center of the auditorium.  Dr. Wells administered the Nitrous Oxide to the young man and then proceeded to extract the bad tooth. The patient screamed in pain. The audience became an ugly mob yelling, "humbug and fraud!" Horace was mystified. This had worked before, it had worked on him why didn't it work now.
   He was discredited and humiliated.  He quit dentistry. Within a year he committed suicide.  During that year his partner (Dr. William Morton) practiced using Nitrous Oxide on patients in the practice.  He noticed that there was a small percentage of patients that the "Laughing Gas" did not work.  Dr. Morton then went to the same medical auditorium that was the scene of Dr. Wells failure a year earlier and performed an extraction with no pain.  He yelled out, "Gentlemen, this is no Humbug!"
   Sixteen years after his death, Dr. Horace Wells was recognized by the American Dental Association for his discovery of modern anesthesia.  Six years later the American Medical Association also acknowledged him.  To imagine how many millions of people have benefited by his work is staggering.  I try and imagine the last year of his life filled with that overwhelming feeling of failure and loneliness.  All he wanted to do was help his fellow man. He gave up too early.  A couple of months after his death his discovery was given life.  He never realized it!
   It took me nearly three decades to realize why my instructor told us this story.  I thought for so long it was to understand that a small percentage of the population do not respond to the gas.  Actually, I think he was telling us to face our failures and keep trying. Giving up too soon is not a "laughing matter."