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

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THE MIRROR ings, and what little had been known was doomed and lost. In those dark ages the barber ' s craft was dignified with the title of a profession, being joined with the art of surgery. Early in the seventeenth century a jesting poet spoke of the barber-surgeon as : His pole with pewter basins hung, With rotten teeth in order strung, And cups that in the window stood Lin ' d with red rags, to look like blood, Who shaved, drew teeth and bled a vein. The memorial between the dental profession and the tonsorial art is still seen in the striped pole and basin sometimes seen pro- jecting as a symbol in front of the barber shops. It was not until late in 1700 that the science of dental prosthesis was eliminated from the jewelry and barber shops and put in the hands of men who not only understood the fundamental principle underlying the science, but also thoroughly studied the human mouth and its many adjacent connections. The anatomical research of Vesalius, later on others, and prominent among them Fallopius Eustachius, Pare, Hunter and Fox, did much toward recreating the medical art, which for upwards of ten centuries lay dormant and unob- served. Under the very shadow of the famous European univer- sities dentistry was professed by the blacksmith, barber, bather, jeweler, silversmith, monk, and even the cobbler. But matters were not destined to so remain, for the hospitable goddess of lib- erty and enlightenment, whose natal day the world shall ever cherish, unloosened fetters and turned the page of progress. Edu- cational matters began to receive attention and the invention of printing and the discovery of America led the way to future tri- umphs. It was in the latter part of the last century, or about the period of the War for Independence, that dentistry was introduced in America. The first men known to have practiced the profession in this country were an Englishman (John Woofendale) and a Frenchman (Joseph Lemaire). John Woofendale arrived in the 21

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THE MIRROR tistry, or prosthetic dentistry, as our American friends prefer to call it, that was practiced in ancient Rome appears to have been rather primitive, as the following from the poet Martial shows : ' Thou has only three teeth, and these Are of boxwood, varnished over. Thou shouldst fear to laugh ; Weep always, if thou art wise. ' The Etrurians, who inhabited the northern part of Italy, were well skilled in mechanical sciences, and Etruria flourished as the Italian seat of learning, wealth and power. Among the Etrurians dental science was studied and practiced as a specialty of medicine. However, in this department of learning, says Prof. G. A. F. Van Rhyn, the eminent archaeologist, the Etrurians were imita- tive rather than creative, and the art bore at every period the marks of foreign influence, especially Egyptian, Babylonian and Grecian. At the International Congress held in Rome in 1900 Professor Guerini exhibited several specimens of dental art which proved that something very much like bridgework was practiced in ancient Italy so efficiently that it has lasted thirty centuries. Artificial crowns have also been found in Etruscan tombs. Dr. Deneffe states that in the museum of the University of Ghent there is a set of artificial teeth found in a tomb at Orvieto, with jewels and Etruscan vases; he gives their date as from 5000 to 6000 years before Christ. The science of dentistry from the fifth to the eighteenth cen- turies was entirely neglected, and to the suffering masses lost in oblivion during the long and blank period of human record his- torically known as the Middle Ages. In this time the mere opera- tion of extracting useless and painful teeth was the extent of dental science. Thus this dark age not only retarded advance- ment in our science, but it produced retrogression, with but few occasional rays of light penetrating its misty veil, only to be im- mediately swallowed in the dense surrounding gloom of supersti- tion and religious intolerance. Dentistry fell like all other call-

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THE MIRROR United States from England in October, 1766. He was a regu- larly educated dentist, having been instructed by Dr. Thomas Berdmore, dentist to King George III. He practiced in New York and Philadelphia, but in March, 1768, returned to England. In 1785 he again came to America, purchased a farm in New Jersey, retired, and in 1828, at the age of 87 years, died. In July, 1778, Dr. Joseph Lemaire, then a soldier, arrived with the French fleet to the United States. While the French and American armies in 1781-82 were in winter quarters side by side, near Providence, R. I., Dr. Joseph Lemaire, by permission of Count Rochambeau, the commanding general, taught the dental art to Josiah Flagg, then 18 years of age, and James Gardette, aged 25. Lemaire ' s practice was not limited to the soldiers only, but he did dental op- erations for the people in the immediate vicinity. According to Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, Lemaire arrived in Philadelphia in 1784, and there continued the practice of dentistry. About 1770, Dr. Isaac Greenwood emigrated from England and settled in Boston, where he practiced until his death. Clark and John Greenwood were the sons of Dr. Isaac Greenwood, and both learned their father ' s chosen profession. Little is known of Clark, It is claimed he was born in England, and, when a lad, accompanied his father to America. John Greenwood was born in Boston, and from all accounts was the first native-born dentist. Young Greenwood at the early age of 15 enlisted in the American Army and fought in the battles of Bunker Hill and Trenton, and was also engaged in the expedition to Canada under General Ar- nold. He afterward entered the naval privateer service, in which he remained until the close of the Revolutionary War, when, find- ing himself out of employment, he applied to his brother Clark, who was in New York City practicing dentistry, but here he re- ceived no encouragement. He then embarked in the business of nautical and mathematical instrument making. Soon after, hav- ing engaged in this business, Dr. Gamage, of New York, re- quested young Greenwood to extract a tooth for one of his pa- tients, which he did very successfully. This was the commence- 22