(1865); "Mr. Robert Jardine with Greyhounds" (1876); "Victoria Regina" (1880), picturing the Queen receiving the news of William IV.'s death; and "The Queen and Her Judges" (1887), which was his largest canvas.
WELLS, Herbert George (1866—). An English novelist, born at Bromley, in Kent. He was educated at the Midhurst grammar school and the Royal College of Science, taking his degree in 1888. From 1894 to 1896 he was on the staff of the Saturday Review. His scientific training, first shown in the publication of a Text-Book on Biology (2 vols., 1892-93), prepared him for a remarkable series of romances in which Swift's circumstantial method is applied to the limits of modern science. The series includes: The Time Machine (1895): The Stolen Bacillus, and Other Stories (1895); The Wonderful Visit (1895); The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896); The Wheels of Chance (1896); The Plattner Story and Others (1897); The Invisible Man (1897); The War of the Worlds (1898); When the Sleeper Wakes (1899); Tales of Space and Time (1899); Love and Mr. Lewisham (1900); The First Men in the Moon (1901); Anticipations (1901); The Lady of the Sea (1902); and Mankind in the Making (1903). We owe to him also a volume of essays entitled Certain Personal Matters (1897).
WELLS, Horace (1815-48). An American dentist, born in Hartford, Vt. He studied dentistry in Boston, and practiced it for a time there till 1836, when he removed to Hartford, Conn. He had already conceived the idea that some anaesthetic might be used in dentistry to prevent pain, and had thought of the employment of nitrous oxide gas as early as 1840. In 1844 he used it successfully in several cases. Early in 1845 he communicated his discovery to Drs. Hayward, Warren, V. T. G. Morton, C. T. Jackson, and others in Boston. In 1846 Dr, Morton and Dr. Jackson obtained a patent for anaesthetics against the remonstrance of Wells. After a visit to Paris, where he communicated his discovery to the French medical societies, and on his return to America, he published A History of the Discovery of the Application of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether, and Other Vapors to Surgical Operations (1847). The dispute as to his discovery and constant experiments upon himself with chloroform produced mental alienation. While in New York, where he was urging his claims before the medical profession, he was arrested and committed suicide. Wells was certainly the first to carry to a successful issue the use of an anaesthetic in surgical operations, with the possible exception of Crawford V. Long (q.v.), whose success was not known till 1849. To Morton is due the credit of having made the discovery widely known and having put it within the reach of the surgical world. See Anæsthesia: Morton, W. T. G. Consult Dr. Wells, the Discoverer of Anæsthesia (New York, 1860).
WELLS, Sir Thomas Spencer (1818-97). An English surgeon and ovariotomist, born at Saint Albans (Hertfordshire), and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Saint Thomas's Hospital, London. In 1841 he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in that institution subsequently held all the principal offices. After serving in the Naval Hospital at Malta, he studied under Magendie in Paris, and in 1853 established himself as an ophthalmic surgeon in London. He was chosen surgeon at the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children (1854). At the Samaritan Hospital he began the work in abdominal surgery which made his name famous. In 1858 he first performed the discredited operation of ovariotomy. In spite of much opposition, the method was finally accepted by the profession in 1864, and by 1880 Wells had performed his thousandth operation. For his achievements Wells was elected to the King's and Queen's College of Ireland, and to the Irish Royal College of Surgeons, and received many other honors. He was one of the first advocates of cremation in England and was largely instrumental in obtaining countenance for that system. He published: Practical Observations on Gout and Its Complications (1854); Cancer Cures and Cancer Curers (1860); Diseases of the Ovaries: Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1865-72; also Leipzig, 1800-74; and U. S. A.); On Ovarian and Uterine Tumors: Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1882; also Milan, 1882); Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tumors (1885; also Paris, 1886).
WELLS, Webster (1851—). An American mathematician, born in Boston, Mass. He graduated in 1873 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an instructor from 1873 to 1880, and later became successively an assistant professor (1883), an associate professor (1885), and a full professor (1893) of mathematics. He is chiefly known as the author of a series of mathematical text-books, which are used in many schools and colleges in the United States. His publications include: Logarithms (1878); University Algebra (1878); Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (1884); Plane and Solid Geometry (1887); Higher Algebra (1889); College Algebra (1890); Academic Arithmetic (1893); and Complete Trigonometry (1900).
WELLS, Wiilliam Charles (1757-1817). An American scientist, born in Charleston, S. C. He graduated at Edinburgh in 1780, and subsequently at Charleston was printer, book-seller, and merchant. In 1782 he accompanied the Loyalist troops to Saint Augustine, Fla., where he was editor of the first weekly newspaper in the province. In 1784 he went to London, and in 1800 became a physician of Saint Thomas's Hospital. His scientific reputation is based upon his Essay on Dew (1814; new ed. 1866). In a paper read by him in 1813 before the Royal Society, he recognized, according to the statement of Charles Darwin, the principle of natural selection. He also published Single Vision with Two Eyes (1792). His essays were published with an autobiography in 1818.
WELLS COLLEGE. An undenominational academic institution for women at Aurora, N.Y., founded in 1868 by Henry Wells. The courses of instruction are partially elective and lead to the degrees of bachelor and master of arts. There were in 1903 123 students and 22 instructors. The library contained 12.000 volumes. The grounds and buildings were valued at $150,000. the total value of the college property being $425,000. the endowment $200,000, and the income $68,000.
