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116 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY
have the theory and practice taught iu medical schools. Their application
was refused, and the history of dentistry as an independent, progressive
and scientific organization began, and today the wondrous fact is the aston-
ishment and adjniration of the scientific world. * * * Those universities
which teach dentistry, teach it as a separate department from medicine and
confer a distinct degree. We have an independent literature, which is not
indebted to medicine so much as it is to other sciences. Anatomy, physiol
ogy, histology, microsocopy, chemistry, etc., are not medical studies. They
are sciences, upon which medical and other studies are based."
Mr. Purrington uses great erudition and satire in controverting the posi-
tion taken by Dr. Kingsley, and concludes thus
"Just as far as dentistry is not a purely mechanical liandicraft, it is a
branch of medicine. As long as tlie surgeon was only a blacksmith with a
searing iron, as long as the barber surgeon mechanically applied a bandage,
a cup, or a leech, and nothing more, they were tradesmen ; that is to say
mechanics or artificers, whose livelihood depends upon the laljor of their
hands, and not professional men, that is to say, men deriving their liveli-
hood from tlie application of abstract knowledge and reasoning thereon to
the concrete affairs of life.
"The fact that its operations are performed on living organisms does not.
per se, dignify the dentist's calling over that of the chiropodist, manicure,
masseur or barber, any more than the fact tliat its operations are performed
on inorganic matter belittles the profession of a civil engineer. Nor docs
the fact that the extraction, filling and imitation of teeth are carried on
chiefly as nu'clianical operations, affect the truth of my statement, excepted
to by President Kingsley, that when the dentists ceasing to be mechanics,
undertake the treatment of diseases of tlie mouth, they become practitioners
of medicine and surgery.
"On my part I admit that the dentist's calling is so largely mechanical
in its processes that, just as was that of the. surgeon in times past,
it has been denied by some to form part of the medical profession. * * *
In Micliigan the taxation of a dentist's instruments as mechanics' tools was
upheld, and the court said that a dentist, in one sense, is a professional man,
in another his calling is mainly mechanical, and llio tools whicli he em-
ploys are used in mechanical operations. In Mississippi a contrary view was
taken, the court saying: "A dentist cannot be properly denominated a
mechanic. It is true that the practice of his art requires the use of in-
struments, * * * ]-,^,^ n ^jpf, involves a knowledge of tlie pli3'siologv
116 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY
have the theory and practice taught iu medical schools. Their application
was refused, and the history of dentistry as an independent, progressive
and scientific organization began, and today the wondrous fact is the aston-
ishment and adjniration of the scientific world. * * * Those universities
which teach dentistry, teach it as a separate department from medicine and
confer a distinct degree. We have an independent literature, which is not
indebted to medicine so much as it is to other sciences. Anatomy, physiol
ogy, histology, microsocopy, chemistry, etc., are not medical studies. They
are sciences, upon which medical and other studies are based."
Mr. Purrington uses great erudition and satire in controverting the posi-
tion taken by Dr. Kingsley, and concludes thus
"Just as far as dentistry is not a purely mechanical liandicraft, it is a
branch of medicine. As long as tlie surgeon was only a blacksmith with a
searing iron, as long as the barber surgeon mechanically applied a bandage,
a cup, or a leech, and nothing more, they were tradesmen ; that is to say
mechanics or artificers, whose livelihood depends upon the laljor of their
hands, and not professional men, that is to say, men deriving their liveli-
hood from tlie application of abstract knowledge and reasoning thereon to
the concrete affairs of life.
"The fact that its operations are performed on living organisms does not.
per se, dignify the dentist's calling over that of the chiropodist, manicure,
masseur or barber, any more than the fact tliat its operations are performed
on inorganic matter belittles the profession of a civil engineer. Nor docs
the fact that the extraction, filling and imitation of teeth are carried on
chiefly as nu'clianical operations, affect the truth of my statement, excepted
to by President Kingsley, that when the dentists ceasing to be mechanics,
undertake the treatment of diseases of tlie mouth, they become practitioners
of medicine and surgery.
"On my part I admit that the dentist's calling is so largely mechanical
in its processes that, just as was that of the. surgeon in times past,
it has been denied by some to form part of the medical profession. * * *
In Micliigan the taxation of a dentist's instruments as mechanics' tools was
upheld, and the court said that a dentist, in one sense, is a professional man,
in another his calling is mainly mechanical, and llio tools whicli he em-
ploys are used in mechanical operations. In Mississippi a contrary view was
taken, the court saying: "A dentist cannot be properly denominated a
mechanic. It is true that the practice of his art requires the use of in-
struments, * * * ]-,^,^ n ^jpf, involves a knowledge of tlie pli3'siologv
