Did you know that Paul Revere, in addition to being a silversmith, also made false teeth for several years?! In fact, by recognizing his own handiwork he was able to identify the remains of Dr. Joseph Warren who died at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Today we are celebrating National Dentist’s Day, March 6., and in particular three mid-19th century dentists in Cambridge: Drs. Andrews, Loomis, and Bullock were all innovators and public servants.
In the 1848 Cambridge City Directory, there were 14 doctors listed in the business directory under “Physicians,” but dentists were not yet listed in a separate category. They were listed individually, but it was not until 1860 they warranted their own category in the business directory:
George P. Backus appears in the newspapers in 1847; Dr. Dillingham in 1857, and James L. Simonds’ arrival on the scene is unknown.
If you cringe at the idea of going to the dentist now, imagine what it would have been like in 1857 to make a visit to Dr. A. W. Dillingham, “Surgical and Mechanical Dentist.” Eeek!
It turns out that “mechanical” dentistry was not quite as medieval as it sounds. In the nineteenth century dentistry was divided into two branches: “operative” and “mechanical.”
Mechanical dentists made prostheses (read false teeth). Operative dentistry, involving removing decay, drilling teeth and making fillings, was considered requiring more medical knowledge, and therefore superior. Mechanical dentists on the other hand were often considered “undignified,” and “unclean,” as reported in the Report of the Committee on Mechanical Dentistry, Trans. Am. Den. Assoc., 1873-4:
“Mechanical dentistry is fast becoming a highway for all the quacks, charlatans and butchers that desire to enter the profession. The maker of artificial teeth will one day occupy the same relation to the dentist that the manufacturer of wooden legs now does to the surgeon.”
—Eames, W. H
To counter these “charlatans,” in 1840 professionally trained dentists had formed the American Society of Dental Surgeons. A further step toward professionalism was the development of academic dental schools. The first university-associated dental school was that of Harvard University in 1867.
Dr. Dillingham qualified as a “surgical” (operative) dentist and a mechanical dentist.
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DR. ROBERT ROLLINS ANDREWS
Dillingham’s successor was Dr. Robert Rollins Andrews, a graduate of the Boston Dental College, renowned dental researcher, and inventor, artist, poet, and author.
Andrews began his dental training in 1858, when, he apprenticed in the office of his uncle in Boston, Dr. Robert L. Roberts. When the Civil War interrupted his apprenticeship, he enlisted as a private in Company H, 47th Massachusetts Volunteers, and re-enlisted with the 60th Massachusetts Volunteers. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant and served as a staff officer with Generals Butler & Banks between 1862-1864.
After the war he attended the Boston Dental College (later a part of Tufts University) and graduated as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1865. His research in dental embryology led to his being appointed Professor of Dental Histology at the same school. After setting up practices in Boston and Hyde Park, in 1868 he took over A. W. Dillingham’s practice in Cambridge. Andrews remained in Cambridge for the rest of his career, with frequent time out to present his research papers in the U. S. and Europe. In 1880 he presented a paper at the International Medical congress in Berlin, which he attended as the Secretary from America. One of his inventions included a “mallet for condensing gold in filling teeth.”
In 1893 the Governor asked him to be a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry, and in 1899 he was made a Trustee of the Tufts Dental College. He received several honorary degrees and was elected to dental societies in Great Britain and Belgium. In addition to his dental practice, he was known locally as an exceptional artist, poet, and playwright. In 1870 he married Mary Emily Leseur, and they had five children.
In 1908 Andrews was honored by his colleagues with a banquet at the Somerset Club in Boston:
After his death in 1921 Tufts University established the Robert R. Andrews Research Society of Tufts College, recognizing “that the work he accomplished in the profession of dentistry is epoch-making
Andrews wrote a testament to the service of Charles Bullock and what he did to promote children’s dental health in Cambridge. (see below) in 1914.
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DR. MAHLON LOOMIS
Mahlon Loomis was born in 1826 Fulton Co., N.Y, to Professor Nathan Loomis and Waite Jenks Barber. When he was a teenager his family moved to Virginia, where, in 1848 he studied dentistry and built up a practice. In 1851 he moved to Massachusetts and landed in Cambridge. He practiced here for just a few years, between 1851 and 1856, after which he moved to Washington, D. C.
But while in Cambridge, in 1854, he invented a method for making “mineral plate” dentures out of Kaolin porcelain:
He applied for a patent on his process, which he finally received in 1857( U.S. Patent 10,847)
It was also patented in France and England:
As it turns out, his dental invention was overtaken in fame by his experiments with electricity performed after he moved to Washington. Keenly interested in wireless telegraphy, he wrote in 1864 “I have been for years trying to study out a process by which telegraphic communications may be made across the ocean without any wires, and also from point to point on the earth, dispensing with wires.” In 1866, (years before Marconi was even born), Loomis performed a successful experiment in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His “two kites, between 14 and 18 miles apart, a vertical antenna, a high frequency detector, and a spark gap transmitter” is considered by the Library of Congress as the first known instance of wireless aerial communication (Lynchburg Museum, Lynchburg West Virginia). https://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/12/28/dr-mahlon-loomis-pioneer-of-radio.
In 1872 Loomis was granted a U.S. patent as the inventor of Wireless Telegraphy. (Patent No. 129,971, July 30, 1872. (https://patents.google.com/patent/US129971A/en)
He died in West Virginia in 1898.
* * *
DR.CHARLES BULLOCK
While not as internationally known as Drs. Andrews and Loomis, Charles Bullock is included here for what he did to promote dental heath for children in Cambridge. He was born in Providence,
R. I. in 1836, the youngest of twelve children. He studied first with his brother (a dentist in Hartford, Ct.) for two years. He spent another several years practicing in Collinsville, Ct. before moving to Cambridge in 1859.
He bought the building at #569 Main Street and began his practice. Bullock was an innovator, – – “the second person in the state to use gas” for anesthesia. Around 1880 he invented (and patented) an inhaler for a that purpose. He also used cocaine, which was popular in those days.
At some point in the 1870’s he teamed up with Dr. A. J. Sawyer:
In the late 1880s he sold out his portion of the practice to Dr. Sawyer, and continued his practice once again on his own. In the 1890’s he became acquainted with Clarence Hews, a recent graduate of the Baltimore Dental College. Hews worked in Bullocks office for about a year before forming his own practice in Malden. In 1907 he rejoined Bullock to form the Bullock & Hews Dental Co. They brought on an associate, Dr. Jones, and after figuring out a better light fixture to enable them to work in the evenings, they opened their practice until 8:00 P.M.
Charles Bullock served as an Overseer of the Poor for fourteen years. But perhaps his most significant contribution to the health of the citizens of Cambridge was his advocacy for children’s dental health:
In his will Bullock left a substantial amount of money, the income of which ($3,000 per year by 1937) was to fund the position of a dentist responsible particularly for educating school children on dental care. This remembrance of his contributions in this regard was written by Dr. Robert R.
Andrews, profiled above:
Charles Bullock died on March 14, 1914. He is buried Mt. Auburn on Snowflake Path, Lot #5932
FUN FACTS
Dentist’s Chairs. Dentist chair was invented by Josiah Flagg in 1790. Just a Windsor chair with an adjustable headrest attached:
The first reclining dental chair was designed in 1832 by James Snell of London:
Toothbrushes. First invented in China, and first mass produced in 1780 by English inventor William Addis, the first American to patent a toothbrush was H. N. Wadsworth, in 1857.
Anesthetics. In 1844 Horace Wells discovered the anesthetic qualities of nitrous oxide, and used it for pulling teeth. In 1846, William T. G. Morton (buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery) “discovered” ether. The two discoveries got confused with one another, and a long controversy ensued over whether Morton discovered ether or discovered the use of it as an anesthetic. In 1864 and 1870 two “major health organizations in the United States—the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association—voted in favour of Horace Wells” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Toothpaste. Before there was tooth paste there was tooth powder or dentifrice, including “Saponaceous” (soapy) Dentifrice sold at local pharmacies:
In 1873 the Colgate Co. produced toothpaste in small glass jars. In 1881 Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield of created “Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Angelique Dentifrice,” the first toothpaste sold in collapsible tubes. (https://stetsonhillsdentist.com/the-history-of-toothpaste/)
Drills. In 1871 James Beall Morrison (1829-1917) invented a high- speed foot-operated treadle drill. This drill could make 2,000 revolutions per minute, vastly speeding up the efficacy of removing decay.
Dental Floss. The first recorded patent for dental floss was issued in 1874 to Asahel M. Shurtleff, a partner in the Boston medical devices company called Codman & Shurtleff. They began selling unwaxed silk dental floss in 1882. (https://oralb.com/en-us/oral-health/dental-floss-history/)
The first Black dentist. The first black man to receive a D.D.S. degree was Robert Tanner Freeman. Freeman, born to enslaved parents, graduated from Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine in 1869 with its first class of six students.
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
SOURCES
History of Dental Surgery, By Koch, Charles R. E (Charles Rudolph Edward); Thorpe, Burton Lee; University of Leeds. Library. 1909. The National Art Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. Pg. 620
Encyclopedia of Massachusetts, Biographical-Genealogical, American Historical Society
American Dental Association
Report of the Committee on Mechanical Dentistry, Trans. Am. Den. Assoc., 1873-7:, p. 192.
Encylopedia.com: The Birth of a Profession: Dentistry in the 19th century
American Dental Association
https://lowrydental.com/tooth-worms-craniofacial-research-brief-history-dentistry/
Journal of the American College of Dentists Vol. 4 No. 3 1937
History of Toothbrushes And Toothpastes – Colgate Professional