History

Solyman Brown, a Giant of Dentistry and its Poet Laureate

Malvin E. Ring, DDS, MLS

Copyright 2002 Journal of the California Dental Association.

Solyman Brown (1790-1876), widely hailed by his contemporary literary establishment as the "Poet Laureate of Dentistry," was one of the visionary individuals who put dentistry on a true foundation of professionalism. He was instrumental in the formation of the first dental journal, the first national dental society, and the first dental school. He is one of the true giants in the history of American dentistry. Solyman Brown’s great-great-grandson was cleaning out his father’s attic and found a trunk full of original material relating to his illustrious forebear. Among the wealth of material was a notebook kept by Solyman’s daughter, Augusta. Selections from it give us a rare personal insight into the type of person this significant dental historical figure was, as well as the struggles he endured in his hard life.

It takes three things to make a profession: formal schooling, an organization, and a literature. Until 1839-1840, these things did not exist in dentistry. Then a number of visionary practitioners got together and turned the trade of dentistry into a profession; and foremost among these was Solyman Brown, a giant in dentistry who ranks with Chapin Harris and Horace Hayden.

Brown worked in a number of fields. He held the degrees BA (Yale), MA, MD, and DDS. He had started his work life as a Christian minister in Connecticut, but differences with some of the leaders in his church led him to become a prominent author: He published a number of books outlining his views of what religion should be. He was a sculptor, a painter, and an essayist, having his writings published in the leading literary journals of his day, the first third of the 19th century.

A friend of many of the leading artists and writers of his day, he carried on a steady correspondence with them on subjects including art and religion. Among his closest friends was Fitz-Greene Halleck (1820-1905), a noted poet who was often termed "The American Byron." Brown was also a woodworker who built beautiful furniture; and, when his fortunes fell in his middle years, he built his own house with his own two hands.

A Treasure Trove of Memorabilia

A great-great-grandson of Solyman Brown, Earle Koeble of Gerber, Calif., discovered a trunk in his father’s attic that contained a wealth of original memorabilia -- including letters, diaries, and family photographs -- of his celebrated ancestor. These, never having been seen before, were made available by Mr. Koeble to the author. Among the items in the trunk was a fair-sized book of memories of Solyman Brown written by his daughter, Augusta. It is this book of memories that served as the basis of this article, and several passages give us a rare glimpse of the personal life of a great figure in dental history.

[Father] entered Yale at fourteen and graduated at eighteen; he broke down in health from over study and too meager a diet. He took a room with another boy and they foraged for themselves. They gave up eating meat and most other cooking. Having packed his tiny trunk, he was carrying it down two flights of stairs when he collapsed. His doctor advised him to "go West" and spend the summer in outdoor work. He started with an axe on his shoulder and worked his way as far as Forest City, [now Ithaca] New York, and joined a lumber camp. ... In the winter he returned home and taught school for a while, then studied for the ministry. ... He preached for a while in Litchfield [Connecticut] but finally settled in New York where he eked out a small salary by teaching in the New College and in a Young Ladies Seminary ... where he was teaching Mathematics and Languages. There he taught Miss Elizabeth Butler, then only 15 years old. They became attached and her father took her out of school and sent her for a year to his brother’s at Suffield, Connecticut. He [S.B.] wrote to her there, but her uncle, by request from her father, did not deliver the letters. After seven years they met again at the house of a mutual friend who had married father’s friend, Dr. Samuel Parmly.

Going home from this friend’s, she took him in to see her father, and told him she was going to marry Mr. Brown "with her father’s consent or without it." Of course, the consent was given. She was of age, although only half as old as he; she twenty-two and he forty-four.

They were married on Dec. 23, 1834. He had been studying dentistry up to this time with Dr. Eleazar Parmly of New York. However, the Swedenborgian Church, which he had joined in 1820, appointed him a missionary; and so he debarked, with his new wife, on a trip that took them as far east as Halifax, Nova Scotia, and as far south as Wheeling, W.V. Ultimately, they had eight children together, five daughters and three sons. Solyman named his second son Eleazar Parmly Brown, after his dear friend and mentor.

Solyman Brown Enters the Field of Dentistry

Although Solyman Brown had been in demand as a minister, in 1832 he had to give up preaching because of trouble with his throat, and his close friend Eleazar Parmly offered to teach him dentistry. Brown moved in with Parmly at 11 Park Place in New York City. Parmly not only taught him the basics of dentistry, but the two worked together to perfect porcelain teeth for dentures. Soon thereafter, Parmly married; and Brown took up residence at a house nearby, 9 Park Place.

After Brown and his young wife returned from their trip for the Swedenborgian Church, they settled in New York City, where Brown began a dental practice in conjunction with a Dr. Samuel Avery. They advertised in the Evening Post that Solyman Brown was doing mechanical dentistry (i.e., dentures and bridgework) exclusively, and that Samuel Avery was doing all necessary surgery.¹ Their work was commended by the highly respected Eleazar Parmly. Nevertheless, the partnership was disbanded after a year.

The Terrible State of Dentistry in the Early 19th Century

American dentistry in the first third of the 19th century was in chaos. There were no legal requirements for treating patients, even if one had no schooling. Quacks and charlatans abounded, and the public was at their mercy. No regulations existed as to the type of training a practitioner must have. Since there wasn’t a single school of dentistry anywhere in the world, practitioners of the trade were taught by the preceptoral -- or apprenticeship -- method; and what was taught was left to the discretion of the established dentist. Nevertheless, there were several ethical, farseeing, dentists who undertook to right the situation. Among these were the profession’s immortals, Chapin Harris, Horace Hayden, Solyman Brown, and Eleazar Parmly.

It was through his friendship with Parmly that Brown had become acquainted with all the leading figures of the dental profession at the time. These men were aware of the need for ethical constraints in dental practice. Perhaps they were urged on by their disapproval of the work of the Crawcour brothers, who had introduced the use of silver amalgam to this country. Although the material was later embraced by the whole profession, it was the Crawcours’ charlatanish ways and shoddy practice that turned these upstanding dentists against the material itself and forced the hasty decamping of the Crawcours back to Europe.

The Beginning of Professional Dentistry

Because of this sorry state in which dentistry found itself, 15 dentists came together in New York City on Dec. 3, 1834, and organized the first dental society in the United States, the Society of Dental Surgeons of the City and State of New York. Hayden was chosen as president, Parmly as vice president, and Brown was named the recording secretary, being elected president in 1839. Unfortunately, the dispute over the propriety of the use of amalgam in practice -- termed the "Amalgam War" -- led to the demise of the organization a few years later.

The benefits to be gained from contact with other practitioners became apparent during the existence of the first society. Thus, a demand grew in the profession for the establishment of a dental journal to which dentists throughout the country could contribute, telling of their experiences, their discoveries, their ideas and suggestions. It was Solyman Brown who, as secretary of the Committee on Publishing, urged a planning meeting. Accordingly, in May 1839, several dentists -- including Parmly, Elisha Baker, and Harris -- met at Brown’s home and founded the first dental periodical in the world, the American Journal of Dental Science. The first issue appeared a month later, on June 1, 1839, with Brown as the editor.

Brown, Harris, Hayden, and Parmly, working together in 1839, founded the world’s first dental school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Because Brown lived and practiced in New York City, it was impossible for him to teach at the new school. However, he helped shape the curriculum and the school’s goals.

In 1840, Brown again took the initiative and called a meeting for the purpose of organizing the first national organization of dentists in the world. This meeting took place at Brown’s home, 17 Park Place in New York City, on Aug. 10, 1840. The result was the establishment of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, the first organization of its kind in the world. Because of his erudition, Brown was named the first secretary of the Society, a post he was to hold for five years.

Brown Combines Dentistry and Preaching

Either because he couldn’t earn enough to support his growing family or because of his innate love of the ministry, Brown again changed his occupation. His younger brother, Augustus, had trained with him in dentistry; and in 1844 Solyman had taken him into his office as a partner. During this time, Solyman had become a devotee of Fourierism after observing Dr. Channing’s Brook Farm Community and decided to leave dentistry for the ministry. He sold his practice to his brother and to a Dr. John Allen and left for LeRaysville, Pa., where he became a member of the North American Phalanstery. (Congregations were organized into "phalanxes.") However, he didn’t approve of the teaching methods there and uprooted his family once again and moved to Ithaca, N.Y. There he preached to a few New Church people and also did some dentistry, assisting a Dr. Miles in his office. After a year, he left again for Danby, just south of Ithaca, and took over for the resident preacher, Dr. Lewis Beers, who was almost 90 years old. Augusta’s description of what the family life was like in 1846 gives us a wonderful picture of the man Brown was.

The congregation was small, and father had a hard time getting enough salary to support his family, keep an old blind horse, a cow and some chickens. But he was a good gardener. ... When mother was busy with a baby, father would take the youngsters into a room off the kitchen when he was writing a sermon and amuse us for a long time, and at the same time sit at his desk and write, holding the youngest, and letting the next oldest curl his longish hair.

In the summertime we could help him in garden and field. In very cold weather he would make doughnuts or cookies, cutting them out in fancy shapes of animals, birds, etc. and let us fry or bake them. His salary was so small for the large family that father had to seek out some lucrative business in the city. So he moved to New York.

Brown Manufactures Porcelain Teeth

Prior to the great discovery of porcelain (terrometallic) teeth, made by the Italian Guiseppangelo Fonzi in 1809, teeth for artificial dentures were usually made of hippopotamus or elephant ivory, with the anterior teeth being from humans, harvested from corpses. This was repugnant to most who had to wear dentures, and thus the introduction of porcelain teeth had a monumental impact.

French dentist Antoine Plantou introduced them to the United States in 1817 and taught a number of American dentists and others how to produce them.² Among these was a Philadelphia jeweler named Samuel Wesley Stockton, who, in 1825, began a business of manufacturing these porcelain teeth in quantity. He took in as his apprentice his nephew, Samuel Stockton White, who was destined to become one of the leading dentists of the 19th century.³

The Brown family’s fortunes were always in a critical state. In 1851, the family had moved again, this time to a house in Brooklyn. Solyman had become a salesman in New York for Stockton’s company. Thus Brown had to take the ferry to Manhattan to his office, the New York Dental Depot at 251 Broadway.⁴ That first year was one of the coldest winters the city had ever experienced, and the East River froze over. When it thawed, the ice broke up and choked the bay, stopping the ferry service to Manhattan; and Brown, not to be deterred from getting to his office, walked to his work on the jammed ice floes. This was so tiring that he didn’t try it again.

The association with Stockton proved short-lived, and Brown returned to dentistry, entering the office of the renowned "Father of Oral Surgery," Dr. Norman Kingsley, on Washington Square in New York City. Kingsley performed surgery and prosthetic dentistry; Dr. Samuel Lockwood did the operative dentistry; and Brown served as office manager. This association was short-lived as well, although they ended it on good terms.

Seeking a new venue, Brown, in conjunction with Dr. Charles S. Miles and John M. Crowell, organized the New York Teeth Manufacturing Company to produce artificial teeth in quantity. The company also issued a newsletter, The Forcep, but like his other ventures this, too, ended in failure in 1860. His daughter, Augusta, recalled this period in her memoirs.

Father had been selling dental supplies for Stockton of Philadelphia, but now he and Dr. Miles and Crowell opened a large establishment and manufactured teeth as well. To be nearer his work, and not have to cross a ferry, Father moved to New York again, taking a large house on Washington Park.

Mother had a very hard life there and her youngest child, Virginia, was born there. And since the business did not prove a success, father moved back again to Brooklyn and took on some literary work.

In the spring of the year 1853, a magnificent Crystal Palace opened in New York. This was the centerpiece of a World’s Fair and had exhibitors from many countries showing their products. Brown saw this as an opportunity to further his manufacturing, and Augusta wrote that

Father put in and exhibited some of the work of his Teeth Manufactory. Owing to some defect in the machinery of the exhibits in the basement of the Palace, it took fire in September and almost everything was burned. Father was there at the time, and with the help of some visitors, he was able to save even his glass display case!

The Brown family was a constant victim of hard times and to make ends meet took in boarders. But 1857 was the year of the "Great Panic," and Brown’s manufacturing business failed. He tried the ministry again in several cities, finally locating in the tiny village of Danby, N.Y., south of Ithaca. He bought a tiny house there that was bursting at the seams with his large family, and a bigger house was hard to find. So he set about, on his own, building a new house.

Father enlarged the house by making another adjoining it with a hall between, and we girls all helped him; besides having several of the neighbors give him a day’s help at raising the roof. After that Father built the chimney before he had laid the floors, except for a few loose boards around the bricks to stand on as he did the work. When nearly through, as he was going up the ladder between the second floor and the roof, the hod of bricks struck something and bricks, ladder and Father went through to the cellar, carrying all the little planks with them. Mother heard the noise, but was used to noises, and hearing nothing more, thought all was well. But a while after father walked softly in, lay down on a lounge, and asked if she had any brandy or spirits in the house. Of course, there was none. "Get me some peppermint and water," he said. She gave him a good strong dose. He was bruised some, but the next day went to work again, after making the ladders more secure.

The Poet Laureate of Dentistry

Early in his life, Dr. Brown had turned his hand to poetry. He published an "Essay on American Poetry with several Miscellaneous Pieces on a variety of Subjects, Sentimental, Descriptive, Moral, and Patriotic in 1818.⁵ But his poetry really came to the attention of the public when, on Feb. 22, 1822, at Washington Hall in New York City, he recited an epic poem of 16 pages, "The Birth of Washington," celebrating the natal day of our first president. He repeated, by request, the recitation again on March 4.⁶ However, it was the publication in 1833 of his epic work of some 80 pages, "Dentologia, a Poem on the Diseases of the Teeth and their Proper Remedies,"⁷ that brought him critically favorable reviews from the literary establishment of the day and led to his being hailed as the "Poet Laureate of Dentistry." This poem was followed by the publication in 1838 of another major work on dentistry "Dental Hygeia, a Poem on the Health and Preservation of the Teeth."⁸

The Impact of "Dentologia"

Brown’s poem "Dentologia" created a sensation in the literary world. The principal literary magazine The Knickerbocker, which published from 1833 until the 1860s, reprinted large portions of the poem. Its major literary critic, in speaking of the poem, said that "Mr. Brown has selected a subject of general and paramount interest, hitherto unattempted in rhyme. ... He has arrayed the subject in the chaste, and beautiful, and elegant vesture of genuine poetry. ... When we consider the difficulty of inculcating the principles of any art or science in the inverted language of poetry, embarrassed by the shackles of rhyme, we are compelled to acknowledge that the author of Dentologia has won his laurels in a hard fought field."⁹

Several cantos will serve to show how Brown’s epic poem taught the importance of dental care. In one canto, Brown discussed the fate of Urilla, a fictitious character, for the purpose of illustrating the fatal consequences of neglecting the teeth:

And she herself is fair in form and face;-

Her glance is modesty, her motion grace,

Her smile, a moonbeam on the garden bower,

Her blush, a rainbow on the summer shower,

And she is gentler than the fearful fawn

That drinks the glittering dewdrops of the lawn.

When first I saw her eyes, celestial blue,

Her cheeks vermilion, and the carmine hue

That melted on her lips; - her auburn hair

That floated playful on the yielding air;

And then that neck within those graceful curls,

Molten from Cleopatra’s liquid pearls;

I whispered to my heart: - we’ll fondly seek

The means, the hour, to hear the angel speak;

For sure such language from those lips must flow,

As none but pure and seraph natures know.

Twas said - ’twas done - the fit occasion came,

As if to quench betimes the kindling flame

Of love and admiration: - for she spoke,

And lo, the heavenly spell forever broke,

The fancied angel vanished into thin air,

And left unfortunate Urilla there;

For when her parted lips disclosed to view,

Those ruined arches, veiled in ebon hue,

Where love had thought to feast the ravished sight

On orient gems reflecting snowy light,

Hope, disappointed, silently retired,

Disgust triumphant came, and love expired!

Brown presented another case, that of a fictitious young woman, Seraphina, who, although a very popular and beloved singer, had chosen to remove herself into solitude from the company of her friends.

To lonely solitude she gives her hours,

In shady copse, or shadier garden-bowers.

In silent grief, and unconsoled, she pines,

And scarce to heaven’s high will her soul resigns.

For, lo, the heavenly music of her lip

So sweet, the laboring bees might stoop to sip,

Has passed away; discordant notes succeed,

And Seraphina’s bosom lives to bleed.

Ye ask the cause:- by premature decay,

Two of her dental pearls have passed away;

The two essential to those perfect strains,

That charm the soul when heavenly music reigns.

But fly, ye swains, to Seraphina fly,

And bid her fastly flowing tears be dry.

Haste to her cottage, where in vain she seeks

To wipe the burning deluge from her cheeks;

And when ye find her, soothe her frantic mind,

And bid her cast her sorrows to the wind;

In secret whisper this kind truth impart:

There is a remedy: - the dental art

Can every varying tone with ease restore,

And give thee music sweeter than before!

"The Knickerbocker" critic ends his review with these words: "When

we consider the importance of these organs [the teeth] to the healthy condition of the System, we cannot hesitate to express the opinion that every member of civilized society who respects the ordinary decencies of life, and pays the slightest regard to personal appearance, health and happiness, should be deeply and constantly impressed with these sentiments."

The effect Brown’s poem had on the status of dentistry was well summed up by the Dictionary of American Biography, (Vol. 3, Page 155). It commented that Dentologia -- the only didactic poem in English, [is] a real literary curiosity, which was very favorably received by the critics. It was reprinted five times and had a great influence in elevating dentistry as a profession."

Solyman Brown’s Last Days

In 1874, Solyman’s daughter, Columbia married; and she and her husband moved to Minnesota and settled in Wasioja, a hamlet on the plains, a few miles from the small village of Dodge Center. There Solyman and his wife spent their last years in happy pursuits and happy surroundings among their loved ones. Solyman took up growing watermelons and other fruit. When he was 86, he wrote, "The truth is that in my present state, I enjoy a great deal and suffer a great deal." Solyman left this earth three months past his 85th birthday, and of this his daughter, Augusta, wrote

Father died on February 13, 1876, of pneumonia. Mother said he took severe colds and he lived only a few days. Both he and Mr. Tuthill were Masons, and he was buried by the organization there. A monument to his memory was erected there, with this verse inscribed:

Ever his face was set to go

Up toward Jerusalem.

Ever he lived and walked as though He saw its golden beam.

His wife, Elizabeth, joined him in death seven years later. Together they were survived by 84 descendants.

The late dental historian, Dr. M.D.K. Bremner, evaluated Brown’s contributions succinctly: "Apparently everything is a matter of luck, even immortality. Hayden and Harris have gained renown as the founders of professional dentistry. Busts and plaques have been dedicated in their honor. The details of their lives have been preserved and recorded, while Eleazar Parmly and Solyman Brown, their co-workers and helpers, who contributed so much to the success of their various undertakings, have been completely forgotten."¹⁰

This great benefactor, not only to the profession of dentistry, but to the world of literature and learning, has surely earned a place of honor among civilized peoples.

Author

Malvin E. Ring, DDS, MLS, FACD, is the author of Dentistry an Illustrated History. He practiced dentistry for more than 30 years in Batavia, N.Y.

References

1. The Evening Post (NY), March 7, 1834, p 3, col 5.

2. Hoffmann-Axthelm W, History of Dentistry, Chicago, Quintessence International, 1981, p 258.

3. SS White Dental Mfg Co, A Century of Service to Dentistry. SS White Co, Philadelphia, 1944, p 2

4. Elkins L, Solyman Brown -- a biography. NY State Dental J 27(8):387, 1961.

5. Brown S. Essay on American Poetry with several Miscellaneous Pieces on a variety of Subjects. Sentimental, Descriptive, Moral and Patriotic, Hezekiah Howe, New Haven, Conn, 1818.

6. Brown S, The Birth of Washington. Daniel Fanshaw, New York, 1822.

7. Brown S. Dentologia: A poem on the diseases of the teeth and their proper remedies. With Notes, practical, historical, illustrative and explanatory by Eleazar Parmly, Dentist. Peabody & Co., New York, 1834.

8. Brown S. Dental Hygeia. a Poem on the Health and Preservation of the Teeth. New York, 1838.

9. The Knickerbocker (New York), 3:150, February, 1834.

10. Bremner MDK, The Story of Dentistry, 3rd ed. Dental Items of Interest Pub Co, Brooklyn, NY, 1954, pp 137, 139.

To request a printed copy of this article, please contact: Malvin Ring, DDS, 2 Roby Drive, Rochester, NY 14618.