Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery - Dental Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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MAURICE J. HICKEY, d.m.d., m.d. Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine for Dental and Oral Surgery- Executive Officer, Department of Dentistry; Professor of Oral Surgery

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WILLARD COLE RAPPLEYE, a.m., m.d., sc.d. Vice President of the University In Charge of Medical Affairs; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, ll.d. President of the University

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Columbia University Its Place in the History of Dentistry The place that Columbia occupies in the history of dentistry can be understood only in the light of the historical circumstances surrounding the establishment of dental edu- cation in the United States. During the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury, medical practice consisted mainly of bleeding, purging, and leeching, while inci- sions and amputations comprised the bulk of surgery. In dentistry, extractions were painful and crude, replacements primitive and costly, while fillings failed to preserve the teeth in which they were placed. The need for more effective treatment was equally great in den- tistry and medicine, but the manner in which this need could be satisfied was entirely dif- ferent for each. Dentistry could progress by simply bettering its instruments, materials and techniques. Medicine could not improve its therapy without basic scientific discoveries. Dentistry could leave its fundamental scien- tific problems for a later day. Medicine had to face them first. Dentistry and medicine were dissimilar in other respects. Facilities for the education of physicians, poor as they were, did nevertheless exist. For dentists these were lacking. Precep- torships with recognized dentists were few and expensive and consequently most of the prac- titioners of the period were self trained. This situation disturbed leading dentists of the pe- riod but they did nothing until events precipi- tated a crisis. Two events took place during the decade preceding 1839 which threatened all the gains that dentistry had made thus far. In 1829, with drums and trumpets, two French charla- tans introduced silver amalgan in New York City. They succeeded, temporarily at least, in causing an exodus of patients from the offices of the leading practitioners. There followed a violent controversy regarding the use of the L. Laszlo Schwartz, D.D.S. new material. This dispute was so great that it was not resolved until almost the close of the last century and is known in historical circles as the Amalgam War. In 1837 a financial panic swept the country. Because of the widespread unemployment and the lack of legislation, dentistry was overrun by unqualified practitioners, the number of dentists doubling during the two years of the panic. The situation was one which no longer permitted leisurely discussion but demanded immediate action. In rapid succession there came to life the American Journal of Dental Science, The Baltimore College of Dental Sur- gery, and the American Society of Dental Surgeons. The decision to found a dental school was not an easy one to make. There is ample evi- dence that it was reached with much reluc- tance. The hope that some way could be found to include the education of dentists in medi- cal schools was expressed by Chapin A. Har- ris, one of the founders of the new school, eight months before its charter was granted. When all was dark and hopeless, wrote Harris, the idea was conceived of establish- ing a Dental College and professionalizing dental surgery. Only the pressure of circum- stances could force a solution to the dilemna confronting the leading dentists and physi- cians of the day. They wanted to include the education of dentists in medical schools but knew that such a step would not serve the best interests of dentistry at this time. The idea of establishing a dental school proved to be a good one. In 1867 Harvard University acknowledged its success by estab- lishing a dental department. Five years later. Oliver Wendell Holmes in a famous address at the commencement exercises of this de- partment said: The branch of the medical profession to which this graduating class has