At length, after a long life of vicissitudes, he was compelled to receive obligations from those whom he had been continually reviling. In the very close of his days a play was acted for his benefit at the little theatre in the Haymarket, through the united interests of Thomson, Mallet, and Pope. It is much to the credit of Pope especially that, notwithstanding the gross manner in which Dennis had calumniated him on many occasions, he took part in the arrangements, and even wrote an occasional prologue to the play, which was spoken by Cibber. Not long after this Dennis died, on the 6th of January 1734.
DENON, Dominique Vivant, Baron de (1747-1825), artist and archaeologist, was born at Chalon-sur-Saone on the 4th January 1747. His parents sent him to Paris to study law, but he showed from the first a decided preference for art and polite literature, and he soon gave up his professional studies. In his twenty-third year he produced a comedy, Le bon père, which obtained a succès d'estime, its author having already made himself a favourite in society by his agreeable manners and exceptional conversational powers. He brought himself under the notice of Louis XV. with such address as to establish at once his position in court favour. The king intrusted him with the collection and arrangement of a cabinet of medals and antique gems for Madame de Pompadour, and subsequently appointed him attaché to the French embassy at St Petersburg. On the accession of Louis XVI. Denon was transferred to Sweden; but he returned, after a brief interval, to Paris with the ambassador M. de Vergennes, who had been appointed foreign minister. In 1775 Denon was sent on a special mission to Switzerland, and availed himself of the opportunity to visit Voltaire at Ferney. He took a portrait of the philosopher, which was engraved and published on his return to Paris. His next diplomatic appointment was to Naples, where he spent seven years, first as secretary to the embassy and afterwards as chargé d'affaires. He devoted this period to a careful study of the monuments of ancient art, collecting many specimens and making drawings of others. He also perfected himself in etching and mezzotinto engraving. The death of his patron, M. de Vergennes, in 1787, led to his recall, and the rest of his life was given mainly to artistic pursuits. On his return to Paris he was admitted a member of the Academy of Painting. After a brief interval he returned to Italy, and resided for some years chiefly at Venice. He also visited Florence and Bologna, and afterwards went to Switzerland. While there he heard that his property had been confiscated, and his name placed on the list of the proscribed, and with characteristic courage he resolved at once to return to Paris. His situation was critical, but he found support and protection in the friendship of the painter David, who obtained for him a commission to furnish designs for republican costumes. This he did to the satisfaction of the Revolutionists, and his name was removed from the list of emigrants. When the terrors of the Revolution were over, Denon was one of the numerous band of eminent men who found a congenial resort in the house of Madame de Beauharnais. Here he formed the acquaintance of Bonaparte, to whose fortunes he attached himself with the happy instinct of one who was always quick to discern the coming power. On the special invitation of the general he joined the expedition to Egypt, and thus found the opportunity of gathering the materials for his most important literary and artistic work. He accompanied General Desaix to Upper Egypt, and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy. The results were published in his Voyage dans la lasse et la haute Egypte (2 vols. fol., with 141 plates, Paris, 1802), a work which crowned his reputution both as an archaeologist and as an artist. In 1804 he was appointed by Napoleon to the important office of director-general of museums, which he filled greatly to the benefit of art and artists until the restoration in 1815, when he had to retire. He was a devoted friend of Napoleon, whom he accompanied in his expeditious to Austria, Spain, and Poland, taking sketches with his wonted fearlessness on the various battle-fields, and guiding the conqueror in his choice of spoils of art from the various cities that were pillaged. After his retirement he occupied himself with the preparation of a profusely illustrated history of ancient and modern art, in which he had the co-operation of several skilful engravers. He died at Paris on the 27th April 1825, leaving the work unfinished. It was published posthumously, with an explanatory text by Amaury Duval under the title Monuments des Arts du dessin chez les peuples tant anciens que modernes, recueillis par Vivant Denon (4 vols. fol. Paris, 1829).
DENTISTRY.The province of dentistry embraces the art of treating diseases and lesions of teeth, and supplying artificial substitutes in the place of these organs when lost. Disease of the teeth is not always a mere local affection, but may, and very generally does, arise from constitutional causes. With cases of the latter description the dentist, unless qualified as a surgeon or physician, is not in a position to deal, except in so far as to repair or ameliorate the local affections produced. The morbid conditions of the system leading in some way to disorders of the dental tissues are, various and dissimilar in their nature; and the exact connection between such morbid conditions and their effects upon the teeth is not well understood. In this way the diagnosis, the treatment, and the removal of the cause might be considered more properly the duty of the general practitioner than of the specialist. Up to a very recent date this has been more particularly the case, dentists until lately having in the greater number of instances been educated with a view to proficiency in the mechanical rather than the surgical department of their profession; while what surgical knowledge they, in a few cases, did acquire was confined to certain facts connected exclusively with the organs upon which they were expected to operate. From the Lancet for 3d June 1876 it appears that not much more than fifty of all the numerous body of so-called surgeon-dentists of the United Kingdom then possessed in reality any medical or surgical diploma at all.[1]
- ↑ Indeed it is comparatively of late years that dentistry has occupied anything like a properly recognized position among the different departments of minor surgery; for long it was practised to a large extent as a superadded means of livelihood by persons engaged in some other pursuit, and without any professional education whatever. The blacksmith, barber, watchmaker, and others of the same class were the dentists of every village and country town; while even in some of our larger cities dentists of the kind were till lately to be found practising under the very shadow of universities and medical schools. The explanation of this seems to have been that mere tooth-drawing constituted the surgical dentistry of these days; and as the operation is one demanding muscular strength and manual dexterity more than anatomical knowledge or surgical skill, and was performed as successfully in many cases by the irregular as by the regular practitioners, it had not many attractions for medical men. It was accordingly consigned to the uneducated and the charlatan, who did not fail with proverbial unscrupulousness to parade their specialty as sufficient to confer a surgical status on those performing it, and entitle them to the designation of surgeon dentist, —a designation which has ever since been applied without discrimination or distinction to qualified or unqualified practitioners in this particular branch. In 1840 or 1841 this state of matters seems to have attracted the attention of the profession, since, after much consideration, some anxiety was manifested by its more respectable members to be recognized in the new Medical Act of 1843, then being introduced by Sir James Graham. Both then and later, however, the fully qualified medical men objected to the fractionally qualified being made to appear as on an equal footing with themselves. The profession may at this time be said to have divided itself into three sections 1st, those who desired to see all dentists fully qualified surgeons; 2d, those who wished them to have only a certain amount of surgical knowledge,
