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HISTOEY OF DENTAL SUEGERY 117

of the teeth, which cannot be acquired but by a proper course of study, and
tliis is taught by learned treatises on tlie subject, and as a distinct, tliougli
limited, part of the medical art. * '' * If such persons should be in-
cluded in the denomination of mechanics, because their pursuit recjuired
the use of mechanical instruments, * * * (^j^^, f:ame reason would in-
clude general surgeons under the same denomination." * * *
The argument in favor of constitutmg dentistry a part of medicine is
thus concluded.
"The function of dentistry being as yet chiefly mechanical, and car-
ried on in well defined limits, dentists have been expressly exempted from
purview in all the bills introduced by the Medical Society of the State of
New York, and it will be the questions arising in civil cases, chieiiy for those
damages resulting from bad work and advice, and not criminal actions, that
will eventually settle in what degree the dentist is to l:>c regarded as a
pi'ofessional man."'
This difference remaining an open question it resulted in the fonna-
tion of an Inter-Xational Dental Congress. The International Medical
Congress, although it has a section on stomatohigy, dues not admit the
holders of the degree of D. D. S. to its deliberations as meinbers.

EAKLY FATHERS OF DENTISTKY IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THK WORLD.
While the writer has confined his observations of the record and times
of the first forty years of the nineteenth century largely to tiie United
States, and only to a few men of that period, it was not in his mind to
convey the idea that there were not otiiers here who also became prominent
in the upbuilding of the dental art and science in this country. Xeither
did he wish to create the belief that all of the improvements in dentistry
up to what may be called modern days were due to Americans, as it is un-
doubtedly true that the greater portion of the scientific research into the
mysteries of the underlying sciences was largely developed bv the French,
German, English and other continental investigators in these fields. Den-
tistry was developed on American soil as an independent profession. It may
be safely asserted, that the condition of society here, social, professional and
political, and the newness of the country, which left it untrammelled bv
the embarrassments of long established precedents existing in Europe, proli-
ably contributed in a large degree to make the United States the especially
adapted field for the Itattle of creative development of the dental profession.