Eminent Victorian dentistry. 2. John Ruskin and the patient experience of Victorian dentistry. Ruskin's mouth and teeth.

This paper is the second of two which examine Victorian attitudes to dentists and dentistry through the diaries and writings of John Ruskin (1819-1900). In the first paper Ruskin's relationship with his dentist was described. In this paper, the history of his mouth, teeth, and dental disease is examined.

Eminent Victorian dentistry. 1. John Ruskin and the patient experience of Victorian dentistry. Ruskin's dentist, Alfred James Woodhouse.

This paper describes the relationship between John Ruskin [1819-1900] the Victorian artist, writer, and critic, and Alfred James Woodhouse [1824-1906], the dentist who cared for him from 1866 to 1883. Although Ruskin was perhaps not quite as eccentric as a recent television series has portrayed him, he was certainly not conventional, and the relationship with his dentist was also not entirely conventional.

A picture of dentistry at Charing Cross in the 1730s given by Hogarth's painting and print of Night. Professional governance, identity and possible mercury intoxication as an occupational hazard for his barber tooth-drawer.

The 2006-7 exhibition of William Hogarth's (1697-1764) works in Paris, London, and Madrid reunited his series The times of the day, first shown at his house in Leicester Fields (now Square), in 1736. Night (Fig. 1), the fourth painting in the group, is as important to the historical record of dentistry as J. M. W. Turner's painting and sketches of The dentist reproving his son's prodigality, described previously in the Journal.

Ethics and Utopia: public health theory and practice in the sixteenth century. An essay comparing the Henrician Medical Act of 1540 and More's 1530 Ordinances, with Thomas More's novel 'Utopia' of 1516.

This essay places the early modern origins of the ethico-legal structure of medicine, in which eventually by exclusion or inclusion, dental activity shared, in the Humanist environment of the Italian Renaissance as it was imported into England in the first years of the sixteenth century. There were two linked stages to this, the first supported by the genius of Thomas Linacre (1460-1524), and the second by the administrative ability of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). This paper concentrates on the evidence for the intellectual basis of More's medical legislation, and that which was made shortly after his death.

Ethics; 'In consideration of the love he bears.' Apprenticeship in the nineteenth century, and the development of professional ethics in dentistry. Part 2. Hippocrates' long shadow.

This two part paper takes a look at the ancient institution of apprenticeship. As stated in the introduction to the first part,(1) it regards the conventions of the scheme as having had a positive influence on the morality, legal identity, and professional allegiance of dentists during the ethical development of their profession in the nineteenth century. The first paper looked at the particular application of apprenticeship through the evidence of indentures in the BDA museum. This second paper enlarges on the view that the wider social institution of apprenticeship was at least in part responsible for the development of the ethics of the dental profession.

Ethics; 'in consideration of the love he bears.' Apprenticeship in the nineteenth century, and the development of professional ethics in dentistry. Part 1. The practical reality.

This paper takes a look at the ancient institution of apprenticeship. In doing so it regards the conventions of the scheme as having had a positive influence on the morality, legal identity, and professional allegiance of dentists during the ethical development of their profession in the nineteenth century. Two important effects can be detected from the records available. One is general, since the moral ground of apprenticeship derived from, and spread throughout, society, and the other is particular to the development of dentistry as a profession, as those who were apprenticed to dentists acquired a natural loyalty to their dentist Masters in person, and to their craft.

Ethics--the early division of oral health care responsibilities by Act of Parliament.

The question of how the profession of dentistry became what it is today, an independent and vigorous one, is an absorbing study. In this analysis of the legislation of the mid-sixteenth century and its effect on modern oral health care delivery, two Acts in particular are notable for their importance in the development of the self-determining practise of dentistry as we now enjoy it in the United Kingdom. The first of these is the 1540 Act uniting the Barbers' and Surgeons' Companies, and the second is one dating from two years later; 'A Bill that Persons, being no common Surgeons, may minister Medicines, notwithstanding the Statute.' Apart from a brief period of 35 years extending from the Dentists Act of 1921 to the Dentists Act of 1956, when the Dental Board of the United Kingdom (which after 1956 became the General Dental Council), was subject to the over-riding control of the General Medical Council, the delivery of oral health care in England has enjoyed an independence which is here identified as having its origin in these Acts 450 years ago in the reign of Henry VIII.

Ethics: how the Apothecaries Act of 1815 shaped the dental profession. Part 1. The Apothecaries and the emergence of the profession of dentistry.

The Apothecaries Act of 1815, (revised by the Act of 1825) has been credited with being the most important forward step in the education of the general medical profession in the nineteenth century, although a closely argued revisionist view of its significance by S W F Holloway makes clear his view that it was also a successful and deeply reactionary political move by the physicians to emasculate a rival group growing rapidly in numbers and power. This paper demonstrates that the Act also created a distance between the true dentists and others, like the chemists and druggists, who carried out dental functions. By so doing the Act defined the social identity of the profession of dentistry, in its numbers, status, nineteenth century reform and pattern of education. The paper proposes the apothecary/general medical practitioner as a social as well as ethical role model for the general dental practitioner.