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

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t STmirpo The Great Master set His seal upon the humblest service when He washed His disciples ' feet, and laid down the law of mastery and service when He said. He rhat is greatest among you shall be your servant, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. The pioneers of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and thus of the dental profession, were sturdy men, as might have been expected of the progeni- tors of so noble a calling ; and as one contemplates the present status of dentistry and looks back through the long years to its nativity one is forced to the conclu- sion that the event of its being and the men concerned in it were not accidents, but, like the other great leaders of history, were divinely called to the task and raised up and trained for its achievement. So it was that in 1839 Dr. Horace H. Hayden and Dr. Chapin A. Harris, pre- ceptor and student, respectively, having been repulsed in their efforts to obtain recognition for dentistry as a special branch of medicine and to have it established as a department in a medical school, worked out their plans for an independent school. These plans were consummated in the granting of a Charter and Articles of Incorporation, the first three sections of which should be matters of keen interest and of sufficient pride to devotees of the profession in every age to justify recording them here : AN ACT INCORPORATING THE BALTIMORE COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY Passed February 1, 1840 Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland. That a College of Dentistry be. and the same is hereby, established in the City of Baltimore, to be known and designated by the name and style of THE BALTIMORE COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY. Sec. 2. And be it enacted, That the following persons be, and they are hereby, appointed and constituted the Professors of said College, to wit : Horace H. Hayden, M.D., to be Professor of Dental Pathology and Physiology: Chapin A. Harris. M.D., to be Professor of Practical Den- tistry; Thomas E. Bond. Jr.. M.D.. to be Professor of Special Dental Pathology and Therapeutics, and H. Willis Baxley. M.D.. to be Professor of Special Dental Anatomy and Physiology. Sec. 3. And be it enacted. That the said Professors and their suc- cessors shall be. and they are hereby, declared to be a Corporation and body politic, to be perpetuated under the name of The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Twenlv

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v £ryiiRRo Mtsicrtr Prof. Jas. Kendall Burgess I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see Z ' isions. ' ' — Joel 2 : 28. HIS effort of your appointed historian will not be directed toward the recording of events in chronological sequence, but rather to the sketching of matter and events ahead)- familiar to many, which, it is hoped, will be of interest to those who love a noble profession and who cherish the place of its nativity and the cradle in which it was rocked. Every material achievement of man has its inception in dreams and visions, and back of these is the outpouring of the spirit of the Infinite brooding, as it were, upon the waters of the human soul, creating unrest and dissatisfaction with things that are, with the fetters that bind and the limitations of human attain- ments, and a reaching outward and upward toward the Boundless and the Infinite from whence come dreams and visions and aspirations. It was out of this consciousness of inadequacy and desire for growth and expansion that the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was conceived and den- tistry as a profession given its birth. Previous to its existence any service to the human dental mechanism seems to have been rather beneath the notice of those who had espoused the healing art. Little was known, perhaps, of its needs, and such service, so called, as was attempted in its behalf was for the most part of a destructive character and was delegated to the blacksmith and the barber. Those who essayed its care as a calling were looked upon with a greater or less degree of contempt. This aloofness, like most of the superior airs which humanity assumes, was due to ignorance of what constitutes real worth, and failure to com- prehend the fact that who does even the humblest task in honest fashion serves his fellow-man and renders praise to God. Nineteen

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MIRgQ Thus it is that Baltimore, this fine, conservative old City of Monuments, that needs no monument to herself save the love and loyalty enshrined in the hearts of those who have partaken of her hospitality and enjoyed her blessings ; the home of the Star-Spangled Banner, ' ' and the couch from which so many boons to humanity have seen the light of day. gave to the world this profession that has fought its way through adversity until it stands today, acclaimed by those compe- tent to judge, the most important specialty of the healing art. At the time of the founding of the College, Dr. Hay.den was seventy years of age and had practiced dentistry for forty years, having been inspired to its study by one Dr. John Greenwood of New York, who had rendered him profes- sional service. In his account of Dr. Hayden ' s entrance upon the study of den- tistry following this professional meeting of dentist and patient, Professor William Simon says : He at once procured such books and essays as were available for his purpose, and with the energy that was so characteristic of him commenced the study of dentistry. ' ' Contemplation of the disadvantages under which the fathers of the profes- sion labored and the obstacles they were forced to overcome leads to the observa- tion that the ease with which knowledge may be obtained is not always the measure in which it is actually assimilated and made to serve humanity, but is frequently in mverse ratio. For every Lincoln there are a thousand nonentities and idlers who cast opportunity to the winds. Idleness and its twin. Ignorance, are the curse and the crime of humanity, and Ease and Luxury are all too often participes criminis in their work of degradation. Adversities have their uses, and the conquering of them develops a moral and mental stamina that are incorporated into its fibre and become a very part of character. Following the difficulties of obtaining sufficient theoretical knowledge as a groundwork for his profession, Dr. Hayden was confronted with the prejudice of those who should have been wise enough to lend a helping hand. He spoke of the days when the name of dentist was a reproach and a byword, but he earned the just reward of seeing the day when men of learning, worth and genius had been added to its ranks. Dr. Chapin A. Harris, the other co-founder, whose name is inseparably linked with that of Dr. Hayden, was less than half his age, aggressive, ambitious, full of energy, and evidently of large mental attainments before his apprenticeship to Dr. Hayden, having the degree of A.M. and M.D. TiventX}-