Background

Greene Black was born on August 3, 1836, on a farm near Winchester, Illinois, United States, the son of William and Mary S. (Vaughn) Black. When he was eight years old, the family removed to another farm near Virginia, Illinois, where they made with their own hands the brick out of which their house was constructed. The little lad helped as his puny strength permitted.

Education

At seventeen Greene took up the study of medicine with an elder brother, Dr. Thomas G. Black of Clayton, Illinois. Three years later he entered the office of Dr. J. C. Speer, Mt. Sterling, Illinois, as a student of dentistry.

Career

In 1857 Black began practise in Winchester, Illinois. In 1862 he enlisted in the 129th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving as sergeant, mostly on scout duty, until disabled by an injury to the knee, which led to his discharge in 1863. In 1864 he resumed the practise of dentistry, in Jacksonville, Illinois. Shortly after he began practise in Jacksonville, he formed a class in chemistry among the school teachers and others which he continued for several years. From 1870 to 1880 he lectured in Missouri Dental Collegeon pathology, histology, and operative dentistry. He was professor of dental pathology in Chicago College of Dental Surgery 1883-1889, introducing the teaching of dental technics in 1887; professor of dental pathology and bacteriology in the University of Iowa 1890-1891; and professor of dental pathology and bacteriology in Northwestern University Dental School from 1891 until his death, becoming in 1897 dean of the school and professor of operative dentistry in addition to his other professorships.

Black's first important paper reported his investigation into the cause of the loss of workability by cohesive gold when stored in the dental cabinet. Its demonstration of the cause, the remedy, and means of prevention has remained unquestioned, the successful rule of practise by dentists. Black's views on "Diseases of the Peridental Membrane, " presented in a chapter contributed to the American System of Dentistry (1886), were sharply criticized at first but finally accepted. His next important dental investigation was reported in a series of papers entitled "Management of Enamel Margins, " setting forth the doctrine of "Extension for Prevention, " i. e. , the extension of the cavity in order to prevent further decay. The idea was bitterly assailed in some quarters, but is now the basis of the accepted method of preparing cavities for filling.

In 1895 Black presented in the Dental Cosmos "An Investigation of the Physical Characters of the Human Teeth in Relation to Their Diseases and to Practical Dental Operations, together with the Physical Characters of Filling Materials. " In this he definitely destroyed two myths that had been everywhere accepted as true. The first was that some teeth were soft and prone to caries, while others were hard and practically immune. Black showed that neither the density of the tooth nor the percentage of lime-salts it contains has anything to do with its liability to caries. The second had to do with the idea expressed in the common saying, "for every child a tooth. " Black showed that, contrary to the common belief even among dentists at that time, the teeth of women during pregnancy are not leached of their lime-salts.

Dr. Black was a voluminous writer. Besides the reports of his investigations, of which only a few of the more important have been mentioned, he wrote several books and numerous papers. At a banquet tendered to him five years before his death by the Chicago Odontographic Society, and attended by several hundred dentists from this country and abroad, a pamphlet was distributed containing more than five hundred titles of books, reports, papers, and major discussions. His style was singularly clear and simple, a clean-cut statement of facts and of the logical deductions from them, with a notable lack of technical terms. He wrote for the understanding of the many, with an unusual faculty of making his ideas available for practical application. His first book, The Formation of Poisons by Micro-Organisms (1884), is still looked upon as an authoritative statement of the subject as then developed.

In 1887 came A Study of the Histological Characters of the Periosteum and Peridental Membrane. In 1891 he produced his Dental Anatomy, a minute study of the macroscopical structure of the human teeth, the recognized textbook of the dental colleges to-day. In 1893, as chairman of the committee on nomenclature of the Columbian Dental Congress, his comprehensive report laid the foundation for a scientific dental nomenclature. In 1908 his Operative Dentistry appeared in two volumes: Volume I - Pathology of the Hard Tissues of the Teeth; Volume II - Technical Procedures in Filling Teeth. In 1915 appeared a third volume to be grouped with the two just mentioned, entitled Diseases and Treatment of the Investing Tissues of the Teeth and the Dental Pulp, his final presentation of this subject.

He was also an inventor. Much of his experimental work took him into unknown fields and he was compelled to devise, in some cases to personally make, much of the apparatus he used. In 1904 he supplied the patterns for 102 "cutting instruments" for carrying out the exact measures he regarded as necessary to the proper excavation of cavities. The last article from his pen, a study in collaboration with Dr. Frederick S. McKay of "Mottled Teeth, an Endemic Developmental Imperfection of the Enamel, " theretofore unknown in dental literature, appeared in July 1915. He steadily refused to commercialize his work, devoting his energies mainly to the elucidation of problems for the benefit of his colleagues, though he engaged in many scientific investigations outside of dental matters.

Achievements

• Greene Balck was one of the founders of modern dentistry and the father of operative dentistry. He researched many important topics to dentistry, including the cause of dental fluorosis and ideal cavity preparations. One of his many inventions was a foot-driven dental drill. He is also known for his principles of tooth preparations, in which he outlines the proper methods to prepare teeth for fillings. As result of his investigation, Black evolved a method of making alloys for amalgam that assured their stability. Today practically all dental amalgam alloys are made by the Black method, and amalgam, then a despised outcast, has come to be valued second only to gold as a filling for tooth cavities. Black was accorded numerous honors, including the presidency of the National Dental Association in 1901, the first International Miller Prize in 1910, and honorary degrees from five institutions.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A work on operative dentistry / By G. V. Black. complete in 2 volumes

    (Original copyright 1908 This is a limited edition facimil...)

  • A Study of the Histological Characters of the Periosteum and Peridental Membrane

    (A Study of the Histological Characters of the Periosteum ...)

  • Descriptive Anatomy of the Human Teeth

    (Descriptive Anatomy of the Human Teeth is an unchanged, h...)

Membership

Black was presidet of the National Dental Association.

Personality

Physically, Black was tall though never robust in build, but capable of almost unlimited endurance, as was necessary in the strenuous life he led. Always he wore a full beard, its dark, almost black color bleaching with advancing years. Of a simple, unaffected personality, willing to learn from others, never failing in his willingness to help others, he had the respect and affectionate regard of all who came in contact with him.

Interests

• Black played several instruments with more than the touch of an amateur, and had a fine singing voice.

Connections

In 1860 Balck married Jane L. Coughennower. In 1865, his first wife having died two years earlier, he married Elizabeth Akers Davenport.

Father:

William Black

Mother:

Mary S. (Vaughn) Black

Spouse:

Elizabeth Akers (Davenport) Black

Spouse:

Jane L. (Coughennower) Black

Daughter :

Clara Black

Son:

Carl Ellsworth Black

Son:

Horace Vaughn Black