title: Advertising in Heroic Couplets: Laughing Gas by Dentist W.J.A. DeLancey.
abstract: Dr. William J.A. DeLancey moved to Illinois from New England in 1858 to practice dentistry. Renowned for his good humor and amiable personality, DeLancey penned a seven-stanza poem in heroic couplets titled "Dental Surgery." These mock-heroic verses were published in about half of the Centralia Sentinel weekly newspapers issued in 1864. Inventor of a tooth powder and an electric dental motor, DeLancey became a statewide leader of Freemasonry. Unfortunately, both his vocational dental library and his avocational Masonic one were incinerated by a house fire in 1892. As a lifelong professional dentist, DeLancey was widely regarded as a true pillar of the communities and of the Masonic Temples in which he had served--first in Illinois (Galesburg and then Centralia) and finally in Williamsport, Indiana.
authors.forename: George S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bause
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000266:history*; D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000266:history*; D003815:Dentists / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000266:history*; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D009609:Nitrous Oxide