Key Points
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Describes the development and absorption of the chemist–dentist into dental practice.
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Illustrates the chemist–dentists as co-heirs of the toothdrawers
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Shows social change in dentists' identity
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Accounts for the ending of dental apprenticeships
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Notes the change in educational patterns in dentistry in the nineteenth century
Abstract
The Apothecaries Act of 1815,1 (revised by the Act of 1823)2, has been credited with being the most important forward step in the education of the general medical profession in the nineteenth century,3 although a closely argued revisionist view of its significance by S W F Holloway4 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. The first part of this paper5 showed how the apothecary/general medical practitioner was removed from competition with the emerging dental practitioner. This second paper illustrates the quite astonishing reversal of fortune between chemists who practised dentistry, and the pure dentists, following the Act. It also points to the influence of the Act on the social position, education, and qualification of dentists.
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References
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Acknowledgements
The paper by S W F Holloway is strongly recommended as further reading, and acknowledgement is here given to it as a source in depth for the medical background for this paper. Also Christine Hillam's account is much to be recommended. Mr Christopher Liddle, late of the College of Law, assisted with advice and the location of legal documents essential to the paper.
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Bishop, M., Gelbier, S. Ethics: How the Apothecaries Act of 1815 shaped the dental profession. Part 2. The chemist–dentists and the education of dentists. Br Dent J 193, 683–686 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801660
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801660
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