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HISTOKY OF DENTAL SURGERY 105

examining boards to prepare the way or permit entrance into practice. Dr.
Chapin A. Harris, having been licensed b}' this board, commenced the prac-
tice of medicine in Greenfield, Ohio. His brother, John, removed to Bain-
bridge, the native place of Professor Taylor, and where the latter became his
student in medicine.
In the latter part of 1827, Dr. Chapin A. Harris l^egan to give attention to
the practice of dental surgery, and gathered around him several students,
who joined him in the search for dental knowledge, of whom Dr. Taylor
was one. From Greenfield, Dr. Harris removed to Bloomfield, Ohio, in 1828,
and here practiced dentistry and medicine for two or three years. Thence
he removed to Fredericksburg, Va., where he confined himself to the prac-
tice of dentistry only, the demand for his service being so great as to lead
liim to abandon entirely the general practice of medicine and surgery. From
Fredericksburg he removed to Baltimore.
"Dr. John Harris and myself had many protracted discussions on the
importance of a medico-dental education and the best method of securing
it. In these we were joined bv Dr. V. A. Harris on one or two occasions,
or perhaps oftener. The leading idea, for several years, was to have a de-
partment of dental surgery attached to medical colleges. But the medi-
cal faculties had already too much to teach, and it was feared that wliile,
by this cour.se, all might be made dabblers in dental practice, but few would
be made proficient in dental science. The more our specialty was looked
into, the more important it appeared, and it soon becaiue too large for
annexation in that way.
"Professor Chapin A. Harris certainly is entitled to the credit of making
the first movement in the right direction, and of establishing that system
of instruction which alone can give character and stability to our profession.
I am truly glad to see that this system gains more and more in favor, and I
cannot see why any member of the profession should hold back, in regard
to that which exalts and dignifies his own profession and himself."
We thus see that the Dental profession, as we now know it, was conceived
in Ohio, although its parturition took place in Mar3'land, and its position
afforded a field in which latent ability and the conception of a new pro-
fession found proper soil and conditions to develop into a living reality.
When the mature thought and great experience and wisdom gained in the
long years of labor of Horace Hayden became joined to the vigor, energy
and capacity for work and unequalled devotion of Chapin A. Harris, then
only about thirty years of age, a creative and constructive force was engendered