If we are talking about CA accelerator, there are a number of different compounds that are used. Mine is "aliphatic solvent and aromatic amine." It is the amine compound that smells bad. Some amines are quite dangerous (ammonia is an amine, to give you an idea—that's where the name comes from) others are less so.
Formulations change.
CA is moisture activated, but getting it wet just seems to make a mess. Breathing on it (water vapor, as opposed to liquid) does work, but not as well.
A household chemical that does work is sodium bicarbonate. I haven't tried using it as a solution, but it works when applied as a solid. I once built a T-rex and used this technique for making a filler. It worked quite well, until several years later when the humidity caused the bicarb to do very strange things to the CA. The T-rex looked like he had a severe case of fuzzy mold everywhere I'd used the filler, and it destroyed the paint job.
Gip (Styrene) has told us that the development of CA as a surgical adhesive (as I, too, had read) is partially an urban legend. He says is was originally developed as an optical adhesive, and then later adapted to surgical use. Since he's in a medical field, I give his history more credibility.