Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/738

696 he edited the "American Spectator," a whig paper in Wasiiington, but, becoming a favorite with President Jackson, was appointed chaplain in the navy. In 1831 he sailed to the West Indies in the "Vincennes"; in 1832-'5 he was attached to the " Constellation " on the Mediterranean, in 1837 assigned to the naval station at Charlestown, Mass., and edited the " Colonization Herald," and in 1888 to the chaplaincy of the station at Phila- delphia, Pa., where, in 1841-2, he was principal editor of the " North American," and published a pamphlet entitled "The Bible in the Public Schools." In 1845 he was ordered to Calitoi'nia, and on 28 July, 1840, was made by Com. Stock- ton alcalde of Monterey, Cal. After exercising the duties of this office for two months un- der a military commission, he was confirmed as alcalde by the vote of citi- zens. He es- tablished there the first news- paper in Cali- fornia, which was called the "Californian," and after its removal to San Fran- cisco the " Alta California." He also built the first school-house, and, in a letter to the " North American," made the first public announcement of the discovery of gold. He returned to Philadel- phia in 1849. He wrote many lively and interest- ing books of travel and sea life, the chief of which are " Ship and Shore in Madeira, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean" (New York, 1835); "A Visit to Athens and Constantinople " (1836) ; " Three Years in California " (1850) ; " Heck and Port : Incidents of a Cruise to California" (1850). In 1851 the Rev. Henry T. Cheever republished the sketches of Athens and Constantinople under the title " Land and Lee in the Bospliorus and -^Egean," and edited " The Sea and Sailor, Notes of France and Italy, and other Literary liemains," with a memoir of the author,

COLTON, Gardner Quincy, scientist, b. in Georgia, Vt., 7 Feb., 1814: d. in Rotterdam, Holland, 11 Aug., 1898. His father was a pioneer settler of the state. Gardner received a common-school education, and at the age of sixteen learned the trade of chair-making, which he followed in St. Albans until 1835, when he went to New York, worked at his trade, and wrote for the press, at the same time improving every opportunity for culture. In 1842 he studied medicine in the office of the late Willard Parker, M. D., and at the College of physicians and surgeons. In 1844 he began the delivery of philosophical and chemical lectures, giving exhibitions of electric phenomena and of the effects of nitrous-oxide or " laughing- gas." An experiment at one of these lectures led directly to the first surgical operation ever per- formed with the aid of an anassthetic. On the evening of 10 Dec, 1844, Dr. Cclton was lecturing in Hartford, Conn. A young man named Cooley inhaled the gas, and while under its influence fell over a bench and was bruised severely. After the effect of file gas had passed, he told Dr. Horace Weils, a dentist who was present, that he had been conscious of no pain. Dr. Wells perceived the significance of the fact, and, after consultation with Dr. Colton, made an appointment for the next day, inhaled the gas, and had a tooth extracted by a fellow-dentist. Dr. Riggs, of Hartford. The opera- tion was painless, and led by natural steps to the general use of anaesthetics. Prior to this time the knowledge of ana?sthetics had not extended beyond theory. Dr. Colton gives Dr. Wells full credit for the discovery. In 1847 Dr. Colton devised an elec- tric motor, and first exhibited it during his lectures at Pittsburg. The machine was made from his plans by a mathematical-instrument-maker named LiLly, and is believed to be the first electric loco- motive operated in this country. It is fully de- scribed in Prescott's " Dynamo-Electricity " (New York, 1884). In 1849 he went to California, and for several months worked in the newly discovered gold-fields and laractised medicine. Returning to San Francisco near the close of the year, he en- gaged in various enterprises, and was appointed justice of the peace by Gov. Riley, the first appoint- ment to this office in California. His energy and prudence soon gave him a competence, and he re- turned to the east and resumed his lecturing tours until 1860, when he became interested in the pub- lication of a series of war maps, which bore his name. In 1863 he established tlie " Colton Dental Association " in New York, and similar offices in several of the larger cities of the United States. Subsequently he introduced the anassthetic use of nitrous-oxide gas in Paris and London. He is the author of several tracts and pamphlets relating to philosophical and theological subjects.

COLTON, George Hooker, author, b. in West- ford, N. Y., 27 Oct., 1818 ; d. in New York city, 1 Dec, 1847. He was graduated at Yale in 1840, and became a teacher in Hartford, Conn. He wrote a poem to commemorate the Indian wars in which Gen. Harrison had been engaged, entitled "Te- cumseh, or the West Thirty Years Since," and prepared, from the sources examined in the prepa- ration of the poem, a series of lectures on the Indians, which he delivered in several cities during 1842-3. In 1844 he read a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa society of Yale. In January, 1845, he issued the first number of a political magazine, called the " American Whig Review," which he conducted with energy and ability until his death.

COLUMBUS, Christopher, discoverer, b. in Genoa about 1436; d. in Valladolid, 20 May, 1506. It is a singular circumstance that we do not know with certainty where or when Columbus was born. His descendant, the Duke de Veragua, believes, with the best authorities, that he was a native of Genoa, and that his birth occurred about the year 1436 &mdash; possibly as late as 1440. According to the custom of the time, he Latinized his name of Christoforo Colombo into Columbus, and when he went to Spain adopted the Spanish form of it, Cristóbal Colon. He was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a wool-comber, and his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa. They had two other sons, Bartolomeo and Giacomo, the latter called in Spain Diego. The early history of Columbus is involved in obscurity. His son and biographer, Ferdinand, unwilling from mistaken pride to reveal the humble condition from which his father emerged, has left his biography very incomplete. We know that for a time he attended school and assisted his father in the trade of wool-combing before going to sea at the age of fifteen, also that he saw some sea-fighting in the wars between Genoa and Venice. These unknown years, it would appear, were stormy, laborious, and eventful. &ldquo;Wherever ship