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

Page 28 text:

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

Page 27 text:

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

Page 29 text:

THE MIRROR ment of his practice as a dentist. It has been said that Dr. John Greenwood was the first dentist in the United States to strike up gold plates to serve as a basis for artificial dentures without a knowledge of it having been done across the sea. During his professional career while in New York, he immortalized himself and his profession as well by carving from the tusk of the hippo- potamus a full set of artificial teeth for the great American, who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his coun- trymen. A block of marble might with propriety have been ce- mented into the monument reared in memory of Washington, and in it carved in glittering letters the name of Dr. John Greenwood. Thus Dr. Greenwood is best known to the profession of today through the fact of his having been the dentist of the first Presi- dent of the United States. As near as can be learned. Dr. John Greenwood died in New York City in 1816. Horace H. Hayden was born October 13, 1768, in Winsor, Conn. At the age of 14 he went to sea as a cabin boy, voyaging to the West Indies. In 1784 he abandoned sailing, and being thrown on his own resources by the poverty of his parents, he became apprentice to an architect, which business he followed until his twenty-fourth year, when, being in New York, and hav- ing occasion for the professional service of a dentist, he visited the office of Dr. Greenwood. While under treatment he deter- mined to study dentistry. He soon procured the few dental books then in existence, and not apprehending any deficiency in the mechanics he directed his undivided study to the calling. He set- tled in Baltimore in 1804 with little practical knowledge of the art and science. His proficiency in these studies soon attracted the attention of the medical profession both locally and generally, and secured him a recognition in the latter profession, having merited the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine by both the University of Maryland and the Jefferson College of Philadelphia. He was one of the founders of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Chapin A. Harris was born in 1806 in Pompey, N. Y. He com- 23