University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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THE MIRROR tributed several papers to medical journals on his physiological researches. Having ever in mind the elevation of the dental profession, he, Dr. C. A. Harris and others sent a petition to the Legislature in December, 1839, to establish a dental college, the faculty to consist partly of dental and partly of medical practitioners. The legislature having granted a liberal charter the college was founded with a faculty composed of the following named gentlemen: H. H. Hayden, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Path- ology; R. W. Baxley, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; C. A. Harris, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice of Dentistry; and Thomas E. Bond, M.D,, Professor of Therapeutics. Although at the advanced age of 70 years Dr. Hayden entered upon the duties of the chair assigned him, and until the illness which terminated his life, he continued to exercise the duties of his profession and lectures to his class. In 1840 in New York, was held a meeting of the best dentists then in the profession, the outcome of which was the formation of the American Society of Dental Surgeons. This outcome was chiefly due to the labors of Dr. Hayden, and he was unanimously elected President of the society and and reelected each year until his death. He died on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1844, at the age of sev- enty-five. A remarkable feature of dentistry, a feature common to no other pro- fession, is that, although it is one of the most prominent professions of to- day, its evolution is embraced within the space of one human life. The political inauguration of the new college presented a difficulty well known in America, when professors often outnumbered students. At length five legitimate students were found to covet the honor of the new title, D.D.S., and the first course of instruction was given in the winter of 1840- 41. The didactic lectures were delivered in a small room publicly situated, but the teachings of practical anatomy demanded privacy and other pru- dential considerations also suggested the use for that purpose of a secluded stable loft, the prejudice of the community against dissections having shown itself some years before. The College was organized with the design of teaching dentistry as a regular branch of medicine, and in order to denote the phenomenal progress of the old Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, start at the time of its birth; when there were about 1200 practitioners of dentistry in America, more than one-half of whom were ignorant, incapable men, whose knowl- edge was composed of a few secrets which they had purchased at fabalous prices from other charlatans, and who considered three or four weeks ample time in which to attain all the knowledge necessary to the successful pur- suit of the calling, contrast the requirements of that time with those of the present day. This is the sixty-eighth year of the career of the college with its pros- 16

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THE MIRROR the dental profession; accordingly in the winter of 1839-40, he obtained signatures to a petition to be laid before the Legislature of Maryland for the incorporation of a College of Dental Surgery, at Baltimore. After much opposition the charter was granted and Dr. Harris continued through life to exercise the duties of one of its most important professorships. In 1840 Dr. H. H. Hayden went to New York and Boston with the design of form- ing a Dental Society. Dr. Harris, among others, immediately responded to the call and the speedy result was the organization of the American Society of Dental Surgeons. In 1840 he published a Monograph of the Physical Characteristics of the Teeth; in 1841 a Dissertation on the Diseases of the Maxillary Sinus. He also revised his Principles and Practice through several editions, and completed his Dictionary of Dental Science, Biography, Bibliography and Medical Terminology. He also translated from the French the works of Delabarre. Through his labors for the profession and his unbounded generosity, although his practice was large, he died poor in the city of Baltimore on the twenty-ninth of September, 1860. ignrarr i . i ix hnx was born at Windsor, Conn., October 13, 1768. He was remarkable from his childhood, and it is said that he learned to read almost as soon as he did to talk, and at once contracted that love for books which was so marked all through his life. While a boy he also manifested a great fondness for nat- ural history which clung to him in after life. At ten years of age he began the study of classics, but, probably for the want of means, soon abandoned it and at the age of fourteen, in the humble capacity of cabin boy of a fine brig, he made two voyages to the West Indies. At the age of sixteen he became apprenticed to an architect until he became of age. He then pursued his business in the West Indies, Con- necticut and New York. While in the latter State he had occasion to call on Dr. John Greenwood (dentist) for his services, when the thought struck him that he would like to follow that profession. Obtaining such informa- tion as he could from Dr. Greenwood ' s instructions and from his books, he went in 1804 to Baltimore, Md., to practice the profession and labored to elevate the calling. To this end he commenced the study of medicine, and in later life the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him both by the University of Maryland and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. In 1814 he was appointed acting surgeon in the Thirty-ninth Regiment of Maryland Militia. About the year 1825 he was invited to read a course of lectures on den- tistry before the medical class of the University of Maryland. He also con-

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THE MIRROR l ects for usefulness brighter than ever. It has added to its faculty and clinical corps strong and active men, and is better equipped to carry out the purpose of its inception than at any period of its existence. Over twenty-five hundred graduates have gone from this College into practice, and these are scattered all over the civilized world. They are located in nearly every city of Europe. They lead the profession in all the great centers of civilization and have won eminence in England, France, Russia, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. They have carried the honors of the institution into Asia, Australia, and the land of the pyramids, while in every State of our Republic, and in all parts of Canada they have demonstrated their own worth and the excellent training afforded them by their Alma Mater. They have met with signal honor abroad, nearly every court den- tist in Europe being a graduate of this institution. Such in brief is the history of our dear old College, our beloved Alma Mater, where we are now seeking a training which will not only bring dis- tinction to, and benefit us personally, but which shall instil nobler ideas into our minds, and so broaden our characters, that we may become better citizens, and better able to fill our allotted place in life, whatever it may be. And may we ever prove an honor to the calling in which we are about to engage, and to our best friend, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.