History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 60

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 60

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

507

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

toward hastening legislative action in every State by the well organized and concerted action of dental societies. There is a State Dental Association, but the only incorpor- ated local organization is the Association of Dental Surgeons, formed October 16, 1888, and managed the first year by five di- rectors, namely, Richard Grady, William A. Mills, William S. Twilley, Charles E. Duck and Adalbert J. Volck. The first officers were Richard Grady, President; William A. Mills, Vice-President; and William S. Twil- ley, Secretary-Treasurer. Regular monthly business and social meetings are held in the offices of the members, at which papers are read and incidents of office practice dis- cussed. The present officers and members are: A. J. Volck, President; J. G. Heuisler, Vice-President; Richard Grady, Secretary- Treasurer; C. E. Duck, W. A. Mills, H. A. Wilson, M. G. Sykes, S. L. LeCron, W. S Twilley, C. C. Harris, C. J. Grieves, A. C. McCurdy, E. E. Cruzen.

The first dental periodical in the world was also established in 1839 and named the American Journal of Dental Science. It was conducted under the editorial charge of Dr. Chapin A. Harris, of Baltimore. F. J. S. Gorgas, M. D., D. D. S., and Richard Grady, M. D., D. D. S., of this city, are the present editors, and it is published by the Snowden & Cowman Manufacturing Co., Baltimore, and Trubner & Co., London.

The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was organized with the design of teaching dentistry as a regular branch of medicine, in which relation only it can be regarded as a scientific pursuit and the practice of it es- teemed a profession; and the 1897 claim is: "To-day we are graduating stomatologists, not dentists. What is a stomatologist but a

man who has charge of the mouth? Noth- ing more nor less, and he must be as thoroughly educated in the fundamental branches of medicine as the medical man himself." No one at the present day ques- tions the position of dentistry as a branch of the healing art, and as such a specialty in medicine. The individual members of the profession who have done most to secure recognition for the body corporate have been liberally or medically educated men. It was through the efforts and personal standing of these men that the profession was seated as a body in the American Medi- cal Association.

At the time of the birth of this new pro- fession there were about twelve hundred practitioners of dentistry in America, more than half of whom were ignorant, incapable men, whose knowledge was composed of a few secrets which they had purchased at fabulous prices from some other charlatans. Three or four weeks they considered ample time in which to attain all the knowledge necessary to the pursuit of a successful call- ing. Contrast the past with the present. The period of instruction now is three terms of six to nine months each; the work of the student is pursued systematically, it being necessary that the studies of each year be completed before admission to a succeeding year's work is granted; at the end of the third year final examinations are exacted in the several branches, when the applicant for the dental degree must exhibit at least sev- enty per cent. familiarity with each subject in which he has received instruction.

Experience has taught that three years is the least time in which the average young man can, with the very best instruction, qualify himself properly to practice den-

508

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

tistry. To understand this may be some- what difficult for the laity, but did they un- derstand the importance of this preparation they would insist that all young graduates whom they employ should have received it.

Dentistry is a peculiar calling, requiring a variety of talents and qualifications as the mechanism is exceedingly intricate and in- volves some of the most important princi- ples. Take, for instance, making artificial teeth. When practiced with the skill which its importance demands it is a difficult me- chanical pursuit. It involves manipulation of gold in many cases as intricate as in any branch of jewelry; of working platinum and fusing minerals ; of making gum bodies and imitating the natural gum, and the manipu- lation of rubber and other materials for that purpose. Each requires a different system. Filling teeth simply as a mechanical opera- tion is a most difficult pursuit and great ex- cellence is reached by but few. Then in the preparation of artificial teeth such a knowl- edge of art is required that when properly done, the denture shall be so life-like in color and shape and so conformed to the contour and grace lines of the face as to conceal the fact that they are artificial.

Now here are two trades and an art com- bined in the filling of teeth and the making of artificial teeth. Added to this a dentist should be as well educated in the funda- mental principles of medicine as he should be if he were to treat the various diseases of the eye, the ear, or any other separate organ of the body. To understand this he must understand general anatomy, the general principles of chemistry, physiology, pathol- ogy, the nature of therapeutical remedies as well as the general principles of surgery. In fact no man can make an intelligent prac-

titioner in the treatment and care of any dis- ease of the body unless he understands the general principles that underlie the treat- ment of all other diseases. To meet the de- mand dental colleges have partial courses of medical teachings, and some of the schools are conducted in connection with medical colleges where these principles are taught by regular medical professors as fully as in the teaching of medical students, and dental students are required to pass the same examination.

The presence of women in the dental pro- fession is one more star in the escutcheon of a profession that has advanced more rap- idly from its birth than any other. Dentists have seemed to agree that nothing is im- possible : prejudice has nowhere an abiding place. They are willing to cast out old ideas and accept new theories, put them to the test, and if good, assign them a place in the dental curriculum. Even so have they accepted women. They have extended to them the right hand of fellowship and given them a place in the front ranks. The pro- fession generally has accepted the female sex gracefully, not as a necessary evil, but as a power for good, knowing that the wo- men who have joined their ranks are from good social strata, and must eventually ele- vate the calling socially and professionally. Dental societies have given them a welcome and assigned them duties in public meet- ings.

About twenty-five women dentists at- tended the World's Columbian Dental Con- gress, all of whom were members of recog- nized dental societies, with the exception of three foreign representatives. They contrib- uted some papers of no common interest in several sections, including one on "Mer-

Richard Grady, Le. D. , & Q. S.

511

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

curic Chloride as a Germicide," which showed a familiarity with the operations of bacteriological research as yet possessed by few dentists.

Women are admitted to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, subject to the same requirements as men; one woman graduate in dentistry is now practicing in Baltimore.

The dentists of to-day can well quote an American humorist's saying-"The amount that the ancients didn't know is volumin- ous"-and not be far astray. Note a few appliances considered indispensable now, which were unknown: The operating chair, with all its conveniences ; the lathe; napkins; duct compressors; the hand, the automatic, and the electrical mallets; the dental engine in its various forms; the rubber dam; the different forms of gold; and many, many other appliances of minor, yet of great, importance to the dental operator.

The discovery of the cohesiveness of gold laid the foundation for a new era in opera- tive dentistry, and the discoverer who made it known in 1855 and shared it with the whole profession was Dr. Robert Arthur, of Baltimore, one of the two regular graduates of the first class of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.

Great improvements have also been made in prosthetic dentistry. Artificial teeth were rudely inserted in early days by bands attaching them to adjoining natural ones. Later both teeth and base were carved out of ivory or bone, and, as a consequence, but ill adapted for fit comfort and use. Natural as well as human teeth, and also those of animals, were attached to bone bases. Still later metallic plates holding mineral teeth were used, either clasped by

bands to natural teeth remaining in the mouth, or in the case of full or entire den- tures, held together on the jaws by means of spiral springs. At the present time arti- ficial teeth, especially upper sets, are so well adapted to the mouth that the adhering force is atmospheric pressure, applied either by close adaptation, or by the aid of a vacuum cavity in the surface of the plate next to the palate. Lower sets when entire are so adapted by closeness of fit that attach- ment to the upper sets by means of the spiral springs is no longer necessary.

George Washington had several sets of artificial teeth, two of which are owned in Baltimore. The teeth in one set were carved out of ivory and the plate was of gold. The other set, probably the first the immortal George ever had, is now in the possession of Edmund Law Rogers, who is a lineal descendant of Mrs. Washington. The plate of this set is lead and the work- manship is of a very crude and poorly con- structed nature.

While remembering and honoring Drs. Hayden and Harris, it should not be for- gotten that Baltimore gave to the profession one of the most learned men and greatest teachers she ever had, Dr. Philip H. Austen; that there is living in this community Dr. F. J. S. Gorgas, the founder and still dean of the University of Maryland Dental Depart- ment, who, with one exception, is the oldest teacher of dentistry, in point of continuous service, now acting as such, in the world; and that Dr. A. J. Volck is the oldest gradu- ate of a dental college in Baltimore. Dr. Volck is one of the veterans in dentistry, has witnessed the great advance made in tools and appliances, materials and methods, and has contributed especially to the im-

512

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

provements in sponge gold, gum enamel, enamel fillings and obturators for cleft pal- ate. For nearly half a century he has been eminent as a man, as a dentist, and as an artist, and has won the affection of every one who has had the pleasure of his friend- ship. The Association of Dental Surgeons of Baltimore City, of which he is president again, for the third time, has appointed a committee to arrange for the celebration of his seventieth birthday, April 14. 1898.

Modern dentistry has recognized much more injury than that which is local to the structures of the teeth. The term dentistry is so closely associated with mere operative work, and comprehends so much that is more mechanical than clinical, that another word has been adopted to include the whole subject of the diseases of the mouth. "Stomatology," the science of the mouth, is the word. There are those who look for- ward to the time when every person who aspires to be a member of the dental "pro- fession" will be required to enter it through the doors of the medical college. Doubt- less the establishment of professorships of stomatology in medical schools would has- ten this reform. Lectures on the pathology of the teeth, both as to their local and gen- eral relations, have been given a place in the program of studies in four of the medical schools of Baltimore on the same plane as the recognized specialties; and medical stu- dents are thus made aware by systematic in- struction that the teeth are as much objects of medical treatment as the eyes or the stomach. Ferd. J. S. Gorgas, M. D., D. D. S., is professor of principles of dental sur- gery in the University of Maryland School of Medicine: B. Holly Smith, M. D., D. D. S., is professor of principles and practice of

dental surgery as applied to medicine, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons; Rich- ard Grady, M. D., D. D. S., is lecturer on stomatology in the Baltimore Medical Col- lege; and Harry A. Wilson, D. D. S., is lec- turer on dental surgery in the Baltimore University School of Medicines.

There are three dental schools located in Baltimore; (1) The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the oldest and for many years the only dental college in the world, chartered in 1839: (2) The University of Maryland Dental Department, chartered in 1882, as a new department of the University of Maryland, whose original charter for a medical school was granted in 1807, when Baltimore, with a population of 33,000 was the third city in size in the United States; and (3) The Dental Department of the Bal- timore Medical College, incorporated in 1895, whose medical school was the first in the United States to propose to graduate dentists with the degree of M. D.

BALTIMORE COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY.

M. W. Foster, M. D., D. D. S., Déan, 9 W. Franklin street, Baltimore, Md.

This institution enters on the fifty-eighth year of its career with its prospects for use- fulness brighter than ever. It has added to its faculty and clinical corps strong and ac- tive men, and is better equipped than at any period of its existence. The results of its work in fifty-eight years are world-wide in their influence upon dentistry. .

Eighteen hundred and seventy-nine (1,879) 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 pro-

513

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

fession in all the great centers of civilization, and have won eminence in England, France, Russia, Prussia, 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 in the United States they have demonstrated their own worth and the excellent training of their Alma Mater.

The College may well point with pride to the standing of its graduates. Many of them have reached high stations in the pro- fession; many have become renowned for their attainments, original discoveries and writings. They have met with signal honor abroad, nearly every court dentist in Europe being a graduate of this institution. Very many of them are men of broad culture, who had previously been trained in other high educational institutions, and collectively they have developed a degree of worth and usefulness which reflect the highest credit upon the College. Four thousand and fifty- four (4,054) students have matriculated at this College.

Faculty .- M. Whildin Foster, M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Therapeutics and Pa- thology; William B. Finney, D. D. S., Pro- fessor of Dental Mechanism and Metal- lurgy ; B. Holly Smith, M. D., D. D. S., Pro- fessor of Dental Surgery and Operative Dentistry; Thomas S. Latimer, M. D., Pro- fessor of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy; William Simon, Ph. D., M. D., Professor of Chemistry; Charles F. Bevan, M. D., Clinical Professor of Oral Surgery; J. W. Chambers, M. D., Professor of Anat- omy; George H. Rohe, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica; T. S. Waters, D. D. S., « Chief Clinical Instructor.

Demonstrators .- William G. Foster, D. D. S., Demonstrator of Operative Dentistry; George E. Hardy, M. D., D. D. S., Demon- strator of Mechanical Dentistry; Edw. Hoff- meister, A. B., Ph. G., D. D. S., Demon- strator of Chemistry.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.

Dental Department.

F. J. S. Gorgas, M. D., D. D. S., Dean, 845 N. Eutaw street, Baltimore, Md.

The sixteenth regular or winter course of . instruction in the University of Maryland Dental Department began on October I, 1897. The University of Maryland, of which this Dental School forms one of the Departments, is the fourth oldest medical school in this country.

The hundreds of graduates of this College of Dentistry are now located in almost every part of the civilized world, and by their abil- ity have established a high reputation for themselves and also for their Alma Mater. The rapid advance of the art and science of dental surgery and the recognition of it by the leading Medical Associations as a spec- ialty of medicine, as well as the desire of every reputable dental practitioner to have it accepted as such, renders it necessary to increase the facilities by which dental stu- dents can acquire not only a thorough knowledge of the profession of their choice, but also a knowledge of the collateral sci- ences. By placing dental surgery, as con- nected with oral surgery, in a position where it is accepted as a department of medicine its status is exalted, a large number of in- tellectual men enter its ranks, and a new im- petus to thought and investigation is there- by created.

514

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

In order to accomplish such purposes, the Dental Department of the Faculty of Physic, University of Maryland, was organ- ized in accordance with a charter granted by the Legislature of Maryland, and is con- ducted by competent and experienced in- structors, among whom are some of the old- est teachers of dentistry in the world. This school was the first toinstitutea post-gradu- ate course, although the credit of such an undertaking has been erroneously ascribed to another institution.

Faculty .- Ferdinand J. S. Gorgas, A. M., M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Principles of Dental Science, Dental Surgery and Dental Prosthesis; James H. Harris, M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Operative and Clinical Den- tistry; Francis T. Miles, M. D., Professor of Physiology; L. McLane Tiffany, A. M., M. D., Clinical Professor of Oral Surgery; R. Dorsey Coale, A. M., Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy; Isaac Edmond- son Atkinson, M. D., Professor of Thera- peutics ; Randolph Winslow, A. M., M. D., Professor of Anatomy ; Charles W. Mitchell, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica; John C. Uhler. M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Pros- thetic Dentistry; Isaac H. Davis, M. D., D. D. S., Demonstrator of Operative Den- tistry; Clarence J. Grieves, D. D. S., Lec- turer and Demonstrator of Crown and Bridge Work.

BALTIMORE MEDICAL COLLEGE. Dental Department.

J. W. Smith, D. D. S., Dean, 712 N. Eutaw street, Baltimore, Md.

The Dental Department of the Baltimore Medical College possesses a complete col- lege and laboratory plant. The dental stu- dent will have the advantage of the same in- struction in medicine as is given by the Fac- ulty of the Baltimore Medical College to the medical student. Organized in June, 1895, the attendance has increased fifty per cent. each year. There were six graduates in the first class, 1897.

Faculty .- J. W. Smith, D. D. S., Profes- sor of Dental Prosthesis, Metallurgy, Crown and Bridge Work: J. E. Orrison, D. D. S., Professor Operative Dentistry, Dental Sci- ence and Dental Technique; William A. Montell, D. D. S., Professor of Dental Pa- thology, Dental Therapeutics and Dental Materia Medica; A. C. Pole, M.D., Professor of Anatomy; J. D. Blake, M. D., Professor of Operative, Clinical and Oral Surgery; Samuel T. Earle, M. D., Professor of Physi- ology; J. Frank Crouch, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics ; W. B. D. Penniman, Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry.

Demonstrators .- Kennon W. Egerton, D. D. S., Demonstrator in Operative Dentis- try; E. E. Cruzen, D. D. S., Demonstrator in Prosthetic Dentistry, Crown and Bridge Work.

CHAPTER XVI.

RAILROAD HISTORY.

Political economists gauge the wealth of a nation by the consumption of soap.

Philosophers gauge the civilization of a people by their roadways and the facilities of transportation.

It may be that the thought of good road- ways and soap as a lubricant has some analogy in the transportation question.

In the light of history we find that the Romans, as soon as they conquered a peo- ple, immediately commenced developing the means of transportation, not only for military, but for postal and commercial ben- efits, rendering accessible the most remote places in their vast empire.

The European settlements along the North American coasts increased in num- ber and population, and finally were merged into the colonies of Great Britain and France.

The colonists, true to the racial instincts, commenced explorations, opening up and utilizing the natural channels, the water- ways of the country, and when these would avail no further, then making short roads or land passages over dividing water sheds.

The French Jesuits in the north of the English possessions, and the Spanish mis- sions in the south, had a chain of communi- cation from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mex- ico, and from the Gulf to the Pacific Ocean.

The impress of those early explorers is stamped indelibly on the country in its nomenclature and people.

The wealth developed roused not only the cupidity of the colonists, but the mother country, and resulted in the colonial wars at the close of the seventeenth and all of the eighteenth century, wars that ended in Great Britain becoming owner of the North American continent, but the pregnant fore- runner of events that changed dynasties and the map of the world.

The Reformation and the introduction of three elements-the printing press, gun- powder and the mariner's compass-had modified the bigotry of the European na- tions, had revolutionized commerce, broken through the crust of mental stagnation and redeemed Europe from the Saracen, but had at the same time engendered jealousies that made Europe a vast field of battle. To Europe this resulted in voluntary ex- patriation of thousands who sought the new world. The colonial wars mentioned above waged by colonists animated by the spirit of freedom and progress, and their descend- ants, developed a spirit that little brooked restraint. The colonists had found that they did not suffer by comparison with the pop- ulation of the older countries in physical and mental ability.

The result was, when the pressure of the fear and menace of the French was re- moved, the formation of a people, the de- velopment of a spirit that resisted European control, the war of the American Revolu- tion and the birth of a new nation.

516

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

At the same time the enormous expenses and losses to the nations of continental Europe resulting from desolating wars, coupled with the wanton extravagance of the nobility, made taxes so enormous that the people, aroused to madness in their pov- erty and oppression, were driven to resist- ance. The French Revolution and the Re- bellion of 1798 were the natural outcome of the historic developments that preceded them.

At the beginning of the present century the whole European world was engaged on the continent in the Napoleonic struggles, while the arbitrary Berlin and Milan decrees of councils of war hindered and obstructed the commerce of the United States. The entire coast of Europe from the Mediter- ranean to Cape North was blockaded by the English and allied fleets. The only port open was "Arch Angel," and it was crowd- ed with hundreds of American ships, la- dened with naval stores, flour, etc., while full return cargoes of Russian and Swedish iron, hemp, linens, etc., were ready. The absolute prohibition by Spain of her colo- nies in the new world and in the Orient from engaging in commerce with other na- tions caused every expedient of our mer- chants engaged in the shipping trade to be devised to carry the products of this coun- try into blockaded and prohibited ports. These difficulties produced a class of men not only bold and daring in their enter- prises, but amassed for the infant and struggling commerce of the country con- siderable wealth to aid in its development.

The white sails of the Baltimore clippers were known and recognized on every sea. The names of Baltimore merchants and bankers on bills of lading or exchange were

recognized all over the world. Immediately after the close of the War of 1812 and the cessation of hostilities in Europe by the downfall of Napoleon, there commenced a development in an entirely new line. Watt and Stevenson were at work developing the engine and locomotive. Tramways at coal mines were abandoning the use of horses as motive power. The roads were being lengthened and general traffic being han- dled. Steam was coming into play as an important agency, not only as the motor for manufacturing industries, but also as the motor to be employed in transportation. The owners of the quarries in Massachu- setts, the iron mines of northern New Jer- sey, eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, were not slow to perceive the advantages that were to accrue by the use of this new agent.

Among the earliest of the roads that was chartered in Maryland and Virginia was the Baltimore & Ohio, chartered in Mary- land in February, 1827, and in Virginia the following month. The States, cities and counties all contributed to this enterprise. The venerable Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, on the 4th of July, 1828, near the Relay House, Maryland, amid imposing cere- monies, turned the first shovelful of dirt and laid the foundation of the first bridge of the railway, that was eventually to connect the Atlantic seaboard with the great Mississippi Valley. The road was started with the ex- pectation of using horse power. The early inceptors of the line were the Carrolls, How- ards and Ellicotts, whose iron industries were located at and near what is now known as Ellicott City, about seventeen miles west of Baltimore; they needed a better and

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344