Chicago College of Dental Surgery - Dentos Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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to deliver a course qt lectures in dental surgery to the medical class of the University of Maryland. In 1817 he was instrumental in organizing the first union Q' dental practitioners into an association for mutual benefit. In 1841, through the agency cy' the newly organized society, he aided in the publication M The American Journal of Dental Science, the first dental journal ever to be published. bVith Chapin A. Harris and other collaborators, Dr. Hayden founded the first institution dedicated to special dental education and became, at the age cy' seventy, its first president and professor of Principles of Dental Science. Four years later Dr. Hayden died and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Baltimore, where his remains still lie in the famibf vault. Chapin Aaron Harris, whose name is always intimately associated with that of Horace H. Hayden, was born at Pompey, New York, on May 6, 1806, and thus was many years Haydcn's junior. He began the study mf medicine in 1824 in Madison, Ohio, and was later duly licensed to practice. In 18.28 he began the practice of dentistry and soon became an itinerant dentist, eventually to settle, in 1835, in Baltimore where he came into as- sociation with Hayden. In 1839 he published his jirst dental text, The Dental .firt-a Practical Treatise on Dental Surgery. This was to be merely the first fy' his many published writings for hc contributed prolyic- ally to the literature on a wide variety of subjects in later years. He joined with Hayden in founding the first dental journal and the jirst dental society. In the winter cy' 1839-1840, under great digfculties, he managed to secure a charter for the incorpor- ation of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and became its ffff dean. He continued to be a vital force in all of these projects until his death I on September 29, 1860. A century ago dentistry was a craft concerned with materials and the prices to be made from adapting these to the occasional needs of the people. It was a craft that had many things in common with the silversmith and the vendorwf potions. It relieved gross sujering and infrequentb attempted to restore those organs lost through such ministra- tions. It required nothing more than a mild ambition to undertake these primitive dental operations because there was no system of education or licensure. Dentistry in those days was not associated in friendbf relationship with . 4. ig gage?-Xcsym Ou olafgixv 0 K 4Ki oCJ30g.JoL Q

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THE FIRST CENTENNIAL OF ORGANIZED DENTAL EDUCATION, LITERATURE, AND SOCIETIES 1840-1940 The story of dentistry in this country is the . story of a single century. It is a story of humble beginnings. It is the story ofthe efforts mf many I and of the genius wi the few. It is the story of a triumph over hostility and indiference. It is the story mf a crude, primitive craft that was . brought to the dignity of a profession that now serves faithfulbv the health security of this country. This story begins in Baltimore in 1840 with the names of Horace H. Hayden and Chapin A. Harris. In that year dentistry was given its first formal educational discipline with the establishment Q' the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery on February 1. In that year also, the jrst attempt at a systematic professional literature was made with the appearance of the frst number M The American Journal of Dental Science. Dental organ- ization also had its beginnings in that year for, on August 18, 1840, the Almerican Society ey' Dental Surgeons was founded. Harris, with Dr. Hayden's advice and assistance, but otherwise almost entirely unaided, secured the signatures ay' representative citizens to a petition in the legislature of Maryland for the incorporation of a College M Dental Surgery at Baltimore. lifter numerous dificulties and considerable op- position by jealous medical rivals, which he jinally overcame, the charter was granted. Thus was founded the first unit of an educational system which was to contribute so monumentally to the progress cy' American dentistry. Horace H. Hayden was born on October 13, 1769, at W indsor, Connecticut. At an earbf age he began to follow the sea but recurring attacks of tropical fever compelled him to return home to take up work as an architect. In the winter cy' 1792 he sought the services Qf Mr. fohn Greenwood, who had served George Washington as a dentist. Intrigued with Greenwood's skill and ingenuity he undertook the study cy dentistry, procuring from Greenwood the few available books on the subject, among them fohn Hunter's famous work. He left New York for Baltimore and set himseh' up in practice. He began to teach a class in dentistry and, in 1825, he accepted an invitation 5, P 0 D x O fir f.sfKf:-if G I J, Ke.':je,L-+tL:iF.z'1fgj.,, fab

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the practice of medicine and often operated in open 1 hostility to it. Its literature did not exist and its recruits came from those restless souls who were willing to try their hand at anything. Commer- cialism and exploitation were part and parcel of T dental practice and the social standing W' the practitioner was not even that of the accomplished artisan. Dentistry in short, had little cj the noble blood U the arts and less of the heritage of science. Then came Haydenland Harris in I8-10. The education of dentists was put on a rational and scientyic basis. Rudimentary medical science was taught to future practitioners and the foundations ry' a rationale for dental practice were laid. Through the dec- ades commercialism was driven from dental educationg the basic sciences becanze fundamentals of the dental courseg the dental technics in clinic and laboratoiy were rcyined. Increased too were the preliminary educational requirements necessary to the practice cy' dentistry until, today, the minimum requirements for dental practice are two years of liberal arts college education and four years of dental education. As dentistry began to expand its services to the public, there was increasing need of measures to control the charlatan. State by state, legislation was adopted to regulate the requirements and admission ey' dental practice until the system was evolved which today protects the public from the untrained and the unqualyied. For many years after the foundation of the jirst dental college, the emphasis Q' dental practice was laid upon materials and physical procedures. The mechanical obstacles to be overcome in the dnficult technical procedure of filling and restoring the teeth were many. But the pioneers applied a re- markable ingenuity to solve them and their success is attested by the many methods cy' theirs which are still in use to this day. This technical advance, perhaps more than any other, has characterized American dentistry until today jinds it leading all of the other countries of the world. The interchange Q' ideas that comes with organization was soon to give its benefits to dentistry. Dental societies were organized and grew in in- fluence until they became the nucleus cy the American Dental Association which represents the profession in this country at the present time with a ales ., 5 v 'ncaa 'N ja k 95 X-4- ,?N'G,e5, Q 0 o 0 6