The influence of 'Golden Age' authors of detective fiction, in particular, D. L. Sayers, on the public opinion of dentists and dentistry.

With her wide readership and sympathetic and intelligent handling of dentists and dentistry in her detective novels and short stories, it is probable that Dorothy Leigh Sayers(1893-1957) influenced the public perception of dentists favourably, as being true professionals, particularly after the 1921 Act made it a fully closed specialty. Her encounter with a dental automaton seen when she was very young is acknowledged by her as a formative influence.

John Ranby FRS, William Hogarth and the Barber Surgeons.

The progress of dentistry towards a profession allied to medicine and surgery was incremental, and a most important step in that process was the separation of the surgeons from the barbers in 1745. Hogarth's illustration of a dentally active barber has been discussed previously in the British Dental Journal. In this paper, his probable contribution to the campaign for separation led successfully by his friend, surgeon John Ranby FRS (1703-1773), through the dramatic and much analysed painting The death of the countess (1743), is analysed. In this paper, it is suggested that William Hogarth was not only aware of the tensions between the physicians, surgeons and barbers that had come to a head, but that he modified the first thoughts, seen in a sketch (now at the Ashmolean, Oxford), to incorporate in this painting, and the print made from it a conspicuous sub-scene, almost central in a composition where the dying countess would be expected to be the only subject, as a satirical comment on that internal conflict.

The Athenæum Club, the Royal Society and the reform of dentistry in nineteenth-century Britain: A research report.

In 1978 M. J. Peterson examined the role played by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in nineteenth-century dental reform, noting the establishment of its Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS) in 1859. In a paper published in Notes and Records in 2010, the present author described the influential role played by Fellows of the Royal Society during the nineteenth-century campaign for dental reform led by Sir John Tomes. Key players in this campaign, including the dentists Samuel Cartwright, Thomas Bell and James Salter, were, as well as being Fellows of the Royal Society, members of the Athenæum Club. The present research report indicates the roles played by those members of the Athenæum Club who were also Fellows of the Royal Society in the scientific and professional reform of nineteenth-century dentistry. Although it does not attempt to document meetings at the Club, it suggests the potential for a symbiotic effect between the Royal Society and the Athenæum. Where the previous paper proposed an active scientific role for the Royal Society in reforming dentistry, this paper presents the Athenæum as a significant extension of the sphere of influence into the cultural realm for those who did enjoy membership of both organizations.

Reflections on dentistry and dental problems under the Third Reich.

Victor Klemperer was a Professor of Romance Languages and Literature in Dresden during the 1920s and 1930s. He kept a diary and the entries for the period 1933 to 1945 have been examined for references relating to dentistry and dentists. These give an insight into an aspect of the social life of the period that appears to have been previously largely overlooked.

Evans and Blandy, Dentists and Men of Mystery in Paris and London in the 19th Century.

This article was originally presented as the annual Orland lecture at the 65th American Academy of the History of Dentistry meeting in London, UK.

Sir John Tomes FRS, Fellows of the Royal Society, and dental reform in the nineteenth century.

In this paper Sir John Tomes HonFRCS LDS FRS (1815-95), surgeon-dentist, is presented as the agent through whose membership of the Royal Society the previously disorganized profession of dentistry shared in the process of reform and scientific progress that engaged the medical profession in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study identifies 70 of the Fellows of the Royal Society who were involved in medical and dental research and/or who gave structure and effect to the governance of the medical and dental professions. In recording the education of Tomes as a scientist, his election to the Society and his place in the process of reform, the paper identifies the Royal Society as a superculture, enabling him to act at a functional remove from the cultures of the surgeons and the dentists of the day.