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Dentistry and the University of London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Stanley Gelbier
Stanley Gelbier
Affiliation:
The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, 210 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK; e-mail [email protected]
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The lack of professional qualifications was felt keenly by some nineteenth-century medical and dental practitioners. In 1860, the Lancet highlighted a scheme “to avoid the operation of the Medical Act, and to enable uneducated and unprincipled men to defraud the public”. It quoted an advertisement from a daily newspaper. Mr T Vary had announced that “Doctors, Druggists, Chemists, or Dentists, who have no Medical Diploma, can hear of an easy method of obtaining one” by writing to him at Jones's Coffee House in London's Tottenham Court Road. In response to an enquiry, Vary told the Lancet that he had just come from America where a friend “had graduated … in 1857, with all the honours”. However, the latter “had to leave America without his diploma” because of a lack of money for his graduation fees, and so had asked him to pay off the debt and bring back the diploma to Europe. Vary said: “I have done so; but have been detained longer than was anticipated, and now find my friend dead”. Indicating that he did not want to lose the money which he had paid on behalf of his friend, Vary continued: “Fortunately, as is common in America, the space for the name is left blank, to allow the graduate to have it filled up to suit his fancy by some writing master”. He proposed to sell the diploma and supporting papers for £23, which, he pointed out, was “as good as if five years' labour and 1500 dollars had been given to obtain it”. Later in the same year, the Lancet stressed that the practice of buying a Continental degree of MD, without examination or residence, was clearly a “fraud upon the public … repugnant to professional honour and destructive of professional character”. It published details of a proposition sent to Mr Pound, a surgeon in Odiham, to obtain a degree “by simple purchase”. Enclosed was a printed circular: “If you wish to become a M.D. without absenting yourself from your professional duties, I can procure you the degree from a Continental University of the highest reputation, on terms more moderate than any hitherto known in this country”. The circular was accompanied by a letter addressed personally to Pound by a Dr H A Caesar, MD, FRCSI. There is no way of knowing how many doctors or dentists actually bought copies of that or similar false diplomas.

Type
Articles
Information
Medical History , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , 01 October 2005 , pp. 445 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2005. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

1 ‘Medical annotations: a diploma cheap’, Lancet, 1860, i: 254.

2 ‘The sale of diplomas’, Lancet, 1860, ii: 469–70, p. 469.

3 General Medical Council, Dentists' Register, London, GMC, 1879, p. 4.

4 General Medical Council, Dentists' Register, London, GMC, 1889, p. 23.

5 See Alfred Hill, The history of the reform movement in the dental profession in Great Britain, London, Trübner, 1877; N David Richards, ‘Dentistry in England in the 1840s: the first indications of a movement towards professionalization’, Med. Hist., 1968, 12: 137–52; idem, ‘The dental profession in the 1860s’, in F N L Poynter (ed.) Medicine and science in the 1860s, London, Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, 1968, pp. 267–88.

6 This is how North American dentistry developed—i.e. separate from physicians or surgeons.

7 This consisted of Membership of the College of Dental Surgeons, which was never recognized by the General Medical Council and thus could not be entered against people's names in the Dentists' Register.

8 N David Richards has written much about this period in the history of dentistry. See, for example, note 5 above.

9 J A Donaldson, The National Dental Hospital, 1859–1914, London, British Dental Journal Publications, 1992, p. 10.

10 E Smith and B Cottell, A history of the Royal Dental Hospital and School of Dental Surgery, 1858–1985, London, Athlone Press, 1997, p. 4.

11 They are all listed in ‘Royal College of Surgeons’, Br. J. Dent. Sci., 1860, 3: 245–6, p. 246, reprinted from The Times, 15 Mar. 1860.

12 In 1907 this became the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.

13 Smith and Cottell, op. cit., note 10 above, p. 29. It merged in June 1983 with the Dental School of Guy's Hospital and finally closed its doors in 1985.

14 G G Campion, Letter to Editor: ‘University degrees’, Br. Dent. J., 1904, 25: 269–71, p. 270.

15 R Cohen, ‘John and Humphrey Humphreys of the dental school’, Aesculapius, 1983, 3: 98–101, p. 98.

16Idem, The history of the Birmingham Dental Hospital and Dental School, 1858–1958, Birmingham, Board of Governors of the United Birmingham Hospitals, 1958, p. 27.

17 Initially its title was the General Council of Medical Education and Registration. This was changed to the General Medical Council in 1951.

18 A representative of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

19 Charles Sissmore Tomes, FRS, was appointed in May 1898 as the first dentist-member of the GMC after nomination by the Queen on the advice of the Privy Council.

20 ‘Annotations’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1902, 23: 468.

21 General Medical Council, Dentists' Register, London, GMC, 1906, p. 22.

22 Editorial, ‘The B.D.S. of the University of London’, Br. Dent. J., 1922, 43: 161–4, p. 161.

23 G G Campion, ‘The need for a higher qualification in dentistry’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1890, 11: 565–78.

24 Editorial, ‘A teaching university’, Dental Record, 1886, 6: 42–44, p. 43.

25 Campion, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 269–70.

26 ‘Correspondence: The higher dental qualification question’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1892, 13: 52–7; 116–19; 181–5.

27 Editorial, op. cit., note 22 above, p. 161.

28 University of London, Calendar, 1974, p. 79.

29 It was mainly non-conformists and secularists barred from Oxford and Cambridge universities who wanted a non-denominational teaching centre.

30 ‘Historical notes’, University of London, Calendar, 1974, p. 80.

31 G M Young, ‘Portrait of an age’, in G M Young (ed.), Early Victorian England 1830–1865, London, Oxford University Press, 1934, vol. 2, pp. 413–502, p. 495.

32 University of London, Calendar, 1974, p. 86.

33 H Willoughby Lyle, King's and some King's men, Oxford University Press, and London, H Milford, 1935, pp. 114–15. The first endowed university chair was established in Liverpool. W T Gilmour was the first holder. See Sir David Mason, ‘Milestones in dental education’, Dent. Historian, 1999, 35: 4–14, p. 7.

34 Mason, ibid., p. 5.

35 H Colin Davis, ‘George Cunningham: the man and his message’, Br. Dent. J., 1969, 127: 527–37.

36 Editorial, op. cit., note 22 above, p. 161.

37 ‘Association intelligence’, Br. Dent. J., 1903, 24: 807.

38 Ibid., pp. 807–8.

39 David Headridge, letter to the editor, ‘Degrees in dentistry—to be or not to be, that is the question’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1899, 20: 316–18, p. 316.

40 Ibid., p. 317.

41Br Dent. J., 1904, 25: 91–131.

42 University of London (hereafter UL), AC8/16/1/1, University of London Board of Studies in Dentistry, Attendance and Minute Book, 31 January 1901, p. 1.

43 Amalgamated with University College Medical School in 1914.

44 Dental education at Guy's Hospital began in 1799 when Joseph Fox gave a series of lectures on dental surgery. He was the first dental surgeon on the staff at Guy's, possibly the first such appointment at any UK general hospital. See M N Naylor, One hundred years of dental education at Guy's, London, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas', 1990, p. 1. Guy's dental school opened on 7 Feb. 1889.

45 London Metropolitan Archives (hereafter LMA), H42/RD/A/03 003, Dental Hospital of London Medical Committee, Minute Book 1899 Jan.–1901 Dec., 23 Mar. 1899, pp. 62–5, on p. 64.

46 Ibid., 7 Apr. 1899, pp. 66–9.

47 Ibid., pp. 67–9, on p. 67. This also appears in UL, AC1/1/3, University of London Academic Council, Minute Book, 1902–1903, as ‘Memorial and recommendations from the Staff and Teachers of the Dental Hospital of London and the National Dental Hospital to the University of London’, March 1899, pp. 36–7, on p. 36. These pages are also bound into UL, Board of Dentistry, Attendance and Minute Book, AC8/16/1/1 between pages 9 and 10.

48 The 1899 Dentists' Register indicates that only 1701 of the 4966 registered practitioners held a British qualification. There were also 24 with American and 2 with Australian qualfications. However, many dentists were not even registered.

49 UL, AC1/1/3 University of London Academic Council, ‘Memorandum and recommendations’, op. cit., note 47 above, p. 37.

50 Ibid., p. 37.

51 LMA, H42/RD/A/03 003, Dental Hospital of London Medical Committee, Minute Book 1899 Jan.–1901 Dec., 27 April 1899, p. 74.

52 Ibid., Bailey Saunders, Secretary to the London University Commissioners, Letter to Morton Smale, 18 April 1899, pp. 75–6, on p. 76.

53 Ibid., pp. 75–6.

54 Morton Smale, ‘Correpondence: Dental education’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1899, 20: 319.

55 J Howard Mummery, Presidential address, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1899, 20: 285–94, p. 289.

56 ‘Association intelligence: London University and dentists’, J. Br. Dent. Assoc., 1899, 20: 370–84, p. 370.

57 ‘Association intelligence: Annual General Meeting: report of honorary secretary’, Ibid., pp. 339–41, p. 340.

58 UL, AC8/16/1/1, University of London Board of Studies in Dentistry, Attendance and Minute Book, 31 January 1901, p. 1.

59 Ibid., 8 February 1901, p. 2.

60 Ibid., 7 November 1901, pp. 4–5.

61 Ibid., 28 February 1902, p. 6.

62 Ibid., 23 June 1902, p. 8. An assistant surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, Godlee had no dental qualification listed in the Dentists' Register or Medical Directory.

63 The texts of these schemes are in UL, AC1/1/3, University of London Academic Council, Minute Book, 1902–1903, pp. 31–7. Copies of these pages are also bound into UL, AC8/16/1/1, University of London Board of Dentistry, Attendance and Minute Book, between pages 9 and 10.

64 ‘Scheme and Preamble’, ibid., p. 31.

65 Ibid., pp. 31–2.

66 Ibid., p. 32.

67 Ibid., p. 32.

68 Ibid., p. 32.

69 Ibid., p. 33.

70 ‘Minority Report’, ibid., pp. 33–6, on p. 36.

71 Ibid., p. 33.

72 Ibid., p. 34.

73 Ibid., p. 34.

74 Ibid., p. 34.

75 Ibid., p. 34.

76 Ibid., pp. 34–5.

77 Ibid., pp. 35–6.

78 Ibid., p. 36.

79 UL, AC8/16/1/1, University of London Board of Studies in Dentistry, Attendance and Minute Book, 23 July 1902, p. 12.

80 UL, AC1/1/3, University of London Academic Council, Minute Book, 1902–1903, 20 Oct. 1902, pp. 31–7.

81 UL, AC5/5/1, Faculty of Medicine, Minute Book, 1900–1938, pp. 85–6; ‘Miscellanea: University of London: Faculty of Medicine’, Br. Dent. J., 1903, 24: 423–4.

82 Norman G Bennett, ‘Editorial: Problems in dental education. II — An imperial degree in dentistry’, Br. Dent. J., 1903, 24: 737–41, p. 737.

83 Ibid., pp. 737–8.

84 Ibid., p. 739.

85 Ibid., pp. 738–40.

86 UL, AC8/16/1/1, University of London Board of Studies in Dentistry, Minute Book, 11 January 1909, p. 42.

87 ‘Notes: Dentistry and London University’, Br. Dent. J., 1920, 41: 1028–9, p, 1028.

88 Indeed, no one did until 1948, when William G Cross gained the sole MS in Dental Surgery.

89 ‘Notes’, op. cit., note 87 above, p. 1029.

90 ‘Educational supplement: Universities granting degrees or diplomas in dentistry’, Br. Dent. J., 1920, 41: 791–2.

91 Quoted in ‘Notes: The new London dental degree’, Br. Dent. J., 1921, 42: 970.

92 ‘Notes: B.D.S. at the London University’, Br. Dent. J., 1921, 42: 448.

93 Editorial, op. cit., note 22 above, p. 161.

94 ‘General news: University of London’, Br. Dent. J., 1927, 48: 1232.