Talk:Horace Wells

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kennyling96. Peer reviewers: Brendanjhong, Krahaman1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:51, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Chloroform

The article says the effects of ether and chloroform were not known which is confusing since his former partner had demonstrated the effects of ether in 1846 (and to him in 1847) and James Young Simpson already knew about, and [[John Snow (physician)] may have written about the effects of chloroform Nil Einne (talk) 03:39, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

The life section, fifth paragraph, second sentence. I had a good laugh at that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.174.194.84 (talk) 08:51, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Questionable Source?

It appears that all of the information used in this article from "Smith, Ken. Raw Deal. Blast Books: New York, 1998" is contradicted by the other sources cited. For example, the information that he damaged the clothes of multiple prostitutes, and that he died at home. Both the Providence Medical and Surgical Journal article from the time and the NNDB article contradict these statements. For example, the Providence Medical and Surgical Journal gives a detailed account of how he was found dead in his cell after committing suicide, with a length suicide letter. Perhaps we should remove the information from the Raw Deal source in favor of the other accounts.173.228.123.201 (talk) 06:33, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi all, I plan on adding more biographical information on Horace Wells, as well as information on his career as a dentist, specifically with chloroform. Kennyling96 (talk) 16:46, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, I just finished reading your edits to this article and think that you did a great job! I just had a question about Wells' illness. I was a bit confused on this section and I think clarifying this part of the article would help. Was he ill, mentally or physically, and was this confirmed by other people or did Wells diagnose himself in his letters? Other than that, I think you made some great edits and added good information to the article. Krahaman1 (talk) 19:34, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Krahaman1, thanks for the feedback. I agree with the clarification on Wells' illness. I could not find much specific information on Wells' illness from my sources. Martin's "An Examination of Horace Wells' Life as a Manifestation of Major Depressive and Seasonal Affective Disorders" was the only source that provided an actual diagnosis. As mentioned in the article, his physician was not able to diagnose him with any particular disease at the time, so I believe he suffered from a mental illness. Martin draws much of his analysis about Wells' depressive and seasonal affective disorders from Wells' letters, mainly to his sister. Kennyling96 (talk) 22:04, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Feedback

Hi Kennling96. I thought that the article did a good job of painting the character of who Horace Wells was. His obsession with anesthesia is highlighted in an intriguing way. There is incorrect grammar in some of the sentences, mainly with not using commas when they are needed. Also, I think some of the sentences could be structured so that the same sentence structure is not used in back to back sentences. The lead of the article describes Wells in a succinct way, but I do believe some extra information can be added to give a better overall picture of who Wells was. The structure of the article is clear. However, I believe that some of the years from the Career section overlap with the Later Years section and defining the difference between these two sections would improve the article. The article does seem to have a large amount of information about Well's career, so I think adding more to his Early Life section could help balance the article out. I found the sources to be reliable, but it would be helpful if links were added to the sources. Overall, good job! Brendanjhong (talk) 14:38, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Brendanjhong, thanks for the feedback. I'll read through the article to fix the grammatical and structural errors. Kennyling96 (talk) 22:07, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Brendanjhong, I read through the article again and was not able to find particular grammar errors involving commas. Could you perhaps point them out or add them for me? Thanks. Kennyling96 (talk) 01:19, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

Overall I think this article is very well done. The career section seemed especially well researched and very informative. My only suggestion would be to elaborate more on the early life section. (I realize it might be difficult because there is only so much info out there, but it would be nice because it would balance out all the info under career) I also think you presented all the information in a neutral and impartial way, but still managed to make it very engaging. Great job! Hhowar12 (talk) 23:35, 8 May 2017 (UTC)