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HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY 79

prosthesis and literature, and also of the extent to whieli dental education was
available to the first dentists who practiced in this country.

JOHN BAKER.
C'ontemporar}- with Robert Woolfendale at New York, according to an
advertisement that appeared in the ''Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News
Letter," of Thursday, January 29, 1767, John Baker appears to have sup-
plied the dental requirements of the Bostonians. This is his card:
John Baker, Surgeon Dentist, begs leave to take this method of informing the
Publiek: That he leaves this Place in Twenty Days at Farthest: That those who
are disposed to apply to liim may not be disappointed. He also begs leave to express his
Gratitude for the Favors lie has received while in Boston, and hopes that those who
doubted the Safety of his Art from its Novelty in this Country are now convinced
of its Safety and Usefulness. Until he leaves this Town he continues at Mr. Joshua
Braekett's in School Street, where he will be ready to contribute to the utmost of
his Power to serve the Publiek in his Profession. His Dentifrice, with proper directions
for preserving the Teeth and Gums, will be had at Mrs. Eustus's near the Town House,
after he has left the Town. N. B. Each Pot is sealed with his Coat of Arms, as in
the Margin of Directions, to prevent Fraud.
Baker evidently did not depart on schedule time, as on April 30th he
again advertised that he would leave in ten days, but on May 9, 17G8, we
learn from au advertisement in tlie New York Weekly Journal that:
John Baker, Surgeon Dentist, Begs leave to acquaint the gentry of New York City
that he has given proof of his superior art to the principal nobility, gentry and others
of Great Britain, France, Ireland, and other principal places of Europe; also to 2,000
persons in Boston, and is now in the City at Mr. John Watson's, in the house where
Captain Eandall lately lived, on the corner of Pearl Street, where he fills teeth with
lead or gold, .so that they will remain fast for many years, and persons may eat, drink
and sleep with them in their mouths as natural ones, from which they cannot be dis-
tinguished by the sharpest eye.
During Bakers stay of about fifteen months, in Boston, he instructed a
patriot of the Revolution, Paul Revere, the hero of the midnight ride, who
was an ivory turner and goldsmith, in dentistry, at least in its prosthetic
branch, as will be seen from an advertisement published in Boston in 1768.
This Baker was also mentioned in the "Annals of Philadelphia," which
states tliat when LaMaire arrived in Philadelphia, in 1781, he found there
a dentist by the name of Baker, who, is it said, was the "'first person ever
known as a dentist in Philadelphia." The first directory pulilished in the
city of Philadelphia, in 178-5, gives "John Baker, dentist, located on Second
Street between AYalnut and Spruce," and also gives Gardetto ns a dental