“The Father of Scottish Dentistry: Dr. Robert Nasmyth (1791-1870) and his Connection with the Goodsir Family of Anstruther” by Michael T. Tracy
At the early age of fifteen, this future dental surgeon to three sovereigns began to study medicine at the Edinburgh Extra-mural School of Medicine, most notably in the anatomy school of Professor John Barclay (1758-1826). While training alongside later notable medical surgeons Robert Liston (1794-1847) and James Syme (1799-1870), it was to Robert Nasmyth, the eminent Henry Lonsdale (1816-1876) accorded the accolade “the father of Scottish dentistry.”
Nasmyth served under Professor Barclay for three sessions as an assistant in physiology and anatomy, before earning his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on 5 February 1811 and shortly thereafter moved to London. He became an assistant to John Fuller, a dentist in Hatton Garden; however, he did not stay long and returned to Edinburgh to open a practice of his own in George Street by 1814. Robert Nasmyth married Mary Lockhart Jobson, the daughter of David Jobson, a senior merchant of Dundee on 27 October 1819 in Edinburgh. They would have eleven children but only one, also named Robert (1827-1857), would follow his father in his chosen profession.
Nasmyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on 4 July 1823. It was during this time that he first became acquainted with East Neuk Goodsir family in the person of Dr. John Goodsir (1782-1848), a surgeon of Anstruther, whom Nasmyth addresses as “Jack” in surviving letters. Nasmyth and John Goodsir would remain friends for the rest of their lives and the friendship would extend to their respective children for decades, including John’s son acting as Nasmyth’s apprentice for nearly two years. In time, John introduced his younger brother Harry, Dr. Henry Goodsir (1819-c.1847), who had newly succeeded him as Conservator of the Surgeons’ Hall Museum. Harry Goodsir expressed an early interest in serving on an Arctic expedition and was generously introduced by Nasmyth and Edward Forbes (1812-1854) to promising and already eminent scientists, anatomists and zoologist, who might further his goal with testimonials. Harry Goodsir eventually received his commission in the Royal Navy as Assistant Surgeon and Naturalist on HMS Erebus under the command of Sir John Franklin.
At the same time, Nasmyth generously assisted the careers of the Goodsir brothers; Robert himself was gaining an international reputation for dental expertise from his original technique of utilizing gold fillings for dental cavities, which was published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1838. In 1843 he published a work entitled Sketch of the physiology and pathology of the teeth, as founded on their minute structure. As well as his dental practice, Nasmyth served on various Boards of Directors namely the Experience Life Assurance Company of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Water Company. He would also serve as President of the Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland and was a founding member of the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary, which would evolve into the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School. Nasmyth would continue to reside at 5 Charlotte Square in Edinburgh with his family until his death.
This work will focus on the life of Dr. Robert Nasmyth, his profession, his works, and family. It will also focus on his relationships with Dr. John Goodsir of Anstruther and his two sons: John and Harry and this author’s guarded supposition that it was in fact, Dr. Robert Nasmyth who served as a dentist to the Assistant Surgeon and Naturalist of HMS Erebus, Dr. Harry Goodsir of the ill-fated Franklin expedition of 1845.
Robert Nasmyth was born on 7 November 1791 in Edinburgh to Charles Nasmyth, a tailor, and Anne Forsyth.
He was educated at the Royal High School and at the age of fifteen he began to study medicine at the Edinburgh Extra-mural School of Medicine notably in the anatomy school of John Barclay and for three sessions served as Barclay’s assistant. Barclay made a lasting impression on Nasmyth who would later dedicate his probationary essay to Barclay and name one of his sons John Barclay Nasmyth who was born in July of 1832 after the Professor. Nasmyth earned his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on 5 February 1811. Robert left Edinburgh for a short period and traveled to London where he became an assistant to John Fuller, a dentist in Hatton Garden. Less than two years later he returned to Edinburgh and opened a dental practice of his own located on George Street and shortly later moved to No. 21 St Andrews Square where his practice remained.
Nasmyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on 4 July 1823 submitting his original work A probationary essay on tic douloureux, a form of facial pain.
It was during this period that Nasmyth became acquainted with Dr. John Goodsir (1782-1848) of Anstruther who in his surviving letters referred to as “Jack” as early as November of 1820. Their friendship continued until Dr. Goodsir’s death in 1848. In 1952 Dr. R.S. Sanderson of Edinburgh donated thirty-five letters written by Dr. Robert Nasmyth to his friend, Dr. John Goodsir covering the years beginning in 1820 until 1836 which were previously held by the Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland. These letters contain family and medical news that were exchanged between the two. In one such letter written by Nasmyth dated 11 April 1832 he made reference to his youngest brother, John Brown Nasmyth (1798-1832) writing “… my time has been much taken up with sickness and death of near relatives and friends. My [unreadable] Brother, John, I am uncertain if your [you] have ever seen, as he had been for the most part resident in London as a printer, he had been for some years in a most unhappy state, and part of the world and himself, we got him down three or four years ago, and [unreadable] all that could be done for him, and gradually sank and died on the second of February.”
The friendship extended even to John Goodsir (1814-1867) the esteemed Professor of Anatomy of the University of Edinburgh. Goodsir in 1830 was apprenticed to Nasmyth and he agreed to waive his fee. Goodsir was an apprentice for two years and decided to pursue a career in anatomy which Dr. Nasmyth very kindly canceled his indentures before the expiry of the legal term. By the autumn of 1835, however, Goodsir was entrusted by Nasmyth to run his practice while he was away. Their friendship continued for the rest of their lives with Dr. Nasmyth being one of the pall-bearers at John Goodsir’s funeral in March of 1867. It should be noted that during Goodsir’s surgical and dental apprenticeship with Nasmyth that he started to collect human teeth which he observed and studied. In 1839 Goodsir published a noted paper On the origin and development of the pulps and sacs of the human teeth which were well received in the medical community and helped drive his professional career along with his reputation.
Henry Goodsir (1819-c.1847) also was acquainted with Dr. Nasmyth. With Harry as Conservator of the Surgeons’ Hall Museum, he expressed his interest in serving in a Polar expedition and he acquired the help and influence of Robert Nasmyth among others. In a letter to his father from Edinburgh dated 11 June 1844 Goodsir wrote “It was very stupid of me to forget in my letter of last night to ask you to write to Admiral Durham about Capt. [Captain] Ross expedition. It was only when I was talking to Mr. Nasmyth that it came in my head. Mr. N [Nasmyth] recommended me to write to the Admiral without delay which I did.” The support through testimonials of Nasmyth, Sir George Ballingall and Dr. John Gairdner, all associated with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was thought advisable.
Dr. Harry Goodsir was introduced mainly it seems by Nasmyth and Edward Forbes, to promising as well as already eminent scientists, anatomists, and zoologist of the time. In writing to his brother, John on 13 April 1845 he expounded on this writing “I called upon Mr. Nasmyth and [unreadable] yesterday… Mr. Nasmyth asked me to dine with him on Saturday where I meet Forbes, Waterhouse, Dalrymple, King (the letterman), etc. I meet Kolliker tomorrow night at the Linn…” Further to this on 21 April 1845, Harry wrote “I dined with Nasmyth last night and had a night of microscopic examinations, Dalrymple, Gulliver, King, Carpenter, Dr. Grant, and Waterhouse were present… I go to the Ethnological Society on Wednesday where Nasmyth is to read [word or words omitted through paper loss at seal] on the peculiar form of the skull in some [word or words omitted through paper loss at seal].”
On 29 August 1822, the Caledonian Mercury Newspaper reported that “Robert Nasmyth of Edinburgh, Esq., is appointed surgeon dentist to his Majesty in Scotland.” The sovereign of the time was King George IV whose heavy drinking and indulgent lifestyle greatly contributed to his short reign of ten years. Nasmyth would serve as surgeon dentist to William IV and appointed lastly to Queen Victoria in March of 1838. The award of a royal warrant was founded on Nasmyth’s innovative practice-based research and well-earned reputation as Scotland’s foremost dental surgeon. One of his first innovative orthodontic appliances included a cap splint which Dr. Robert Liston (1794-1847) a pioneering Scottish surgeon in Practical Surgery (1837) described these “metallic caps fitted to the teeth of the upper and lower jaws of the sound side. These are riveted or soldered together at their bases so that when applied, they shall have the effect of preventing the dragging of the remaining portion of the bone and chin, to the opposite side, by the external pterygoid, mylo-hyoid, and digastric muscles, and by the elasticity of the soft parts.” Nineteen years later it was copied in vulcanite (a rare copper telluride mineral) by an American dentist, T.B. Gunning (1813-1889) and has since been known by his name as the Gunning splint.
In addition to devising new orthodontic appliances, Nasmyth gained a reputation for originating new dental techniques including the filling of dental cavities with gold. Dr. Henry A. Dewar, a Boston dentist subsequently heard about the technique and inquired about this to Nasmyth. Nasmyth gave a detailed reply on 5 August 1838 which was later published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal also in that same year. It must be noted there was no organized training for dentists in Scotland at this time and this deficiency would not be addressed until Nasmyth and other specialist dental practitioners founded the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary as will be discussed later. According to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh “Many skilled operators took on apprentices and revealed their secrets and gave instructions on extracting teeth, filling cavities with gold foil and other chairside practices.”
The close personal and professional association between Nasmyth and the extended Goodsir family has contributed to speculation about the origin of a gold dental filling in the skeletal remains found on King William Island in the Canadian Arctic and believed to be those of a member of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. In 2009 forensic medical researchers, who examined these skeletal remains postulated the remains could be those of the author’s distant third cousin, Harry Goodsir, Assistant Surgeon and Naturalist of HMS Erebus.
Predictably as a conscientious professional, Nasmyth was at the forefront of conducting surgical dental operations without pain or consciousness by means of an induced “mesmeric” or hypnotic sleep. The account was published in the Manchester Times of 20 May 1843 “There are few who have not suffered from tooth-ache, and very few who do not know from experience that tooth extraction is rather a painful operation. It is, therefore, with much pleasure we record the following case from the Medical Times, of the 6th instant., which had been communicated by Mr. Robert Cox, who acted as secretary to a committee of medical and other gentlemen, held at Edinburgh on May 1, 1843, when a patient was mesmerized by Mr. Craig, and at 17 minutes after commencing the process Mr. Robert Nasmyth, surgeon dentist to the Queen, extracted a molar-tooth, when the patient, Mr. Gill, showed no sign of sensibility. Mr. Nasmyth remarked that he seemed perfectfully insensible. Mr. Kiach, surgeon (who was acting as special watchman of the proceedings) said he saw no symptoms of pain; Gill’s countenance had been perfectly tranquil. Mr. Nasmyth stated that the extraction of such a tooth under ordinary circumstances would have been attended with considerable pain. On awakening, he (the patient), declared he felt very well; was disturbed by something soon after he fell asleep; was confused by something else (he was pricked with a pin, and his nose tickled with a feather); does not recollect anything being done to him; misses a tooth now, but had no feeling when it was extracted; had no pain in his mouth; is glad he has got rid of the tooth. This is an important fact, as the operation was performed before a committee of inquiry; but we are well aware that similar operations have been done repeatedly, and that by more than one of our townsmen.” It was also in the same year (1843) Nasmyth produced a paper entitled Sketch of the physiology and pathology of the teeth, as founded on their minute structure.
The state of dentistry was in a poor state of affairs during this period. Dentistry was not regulated and there was no formalized education as well as training for individuals who wanted to pursue the occupation. In 1860 Nasmyth, with his friends and fellow dentists John Smith, Francis Brodie Imlach, and Peter Orphoot together founded the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary which aimed to provide clinical instruction for dental students and at the same time give much needed dental care to the poorer citizens of Edinburgh. Advertisements like the one shown below were published in newspapers across Scotland and it should be noted that Nasmyth was listed as Consulting Surgeon-Dentist and his long-time friend and former apprentice, Professor John Goodsir as Consulting Surgeon to the Dispensary.
Nasmyth continued to work at the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary on the Ordinary Medical Staff until February of 1867 when he retired from the staff but retained the emeritus office of Consulting Surgeon-Dentist. The Dispensary eventually became the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School. In January of 1865, Dr. John Smith President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh called a meeting of his fellow colleagues, including Nasmyth, to establish the Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland, of which Nasmyth was a founding member and later served as President.
Robert and Mary Jobson Nasmyth had eleven children who were all born in Edinburgh. They were:
Catherine born on 23 August 1820;
Anne born on 7 March 1822;
Mary Elizabeth born on 12 December 1823;
Charles born on 22 September 1825;
Robert born on 3 July 182755 and died in 1857;
David Jobson born on 9 March 1829;
John Barclay born on 11 July 1832;
Alice Horner born on 6 April 1836;
Alexander Edward born on 25 August 1838;
Amelia Opie born on 29 November 1840;
Louisa Brown born on 29 November 1840
The Nasmyth family were listed in the 1841 Scotland Census for Ratho, Midlothian showing Robert as being 50 years of age and working as a surgeon; his wife, Mary is 40 years of age with the following children: Catherine age 20; Anne age 15; Mary age 15; Robert age 10; David age 10 [sic]; John age 10 [sic]; Alice age 5; Edward age 2; Agnes age 6 months and Christian [sic] age 6 months.
Robert and his growing family were subsequently listed in 1851 and 1861 Scotland Censuses respectively.
Dr. Nasmyth served on the Board of Directors to the Experience Life Assurance Company of Edinburgh beginning in 1844 and the Edinburgh Water Company beginning in 1860. In later life, Nasmyth lived at No. 5 Charlotte Square, regarded as one of the most prestigious addresses in Edinburgh. Mary Lockhart Jobson Nasmyth, his wife, preceded him in death on 10 April 1860 after over forty years of marriage. The doctor’s other passion was collecting artwork in which he had an extensive collection. After his death, the Wrexham Guardian Newspaper published the following “At the sale of the late Dr. Nasmyth’s pictures in Edinburgh, on Monday, the following were sold: ‘Portrait of Sir Walter Scott, in his study at Abbotsford, reading the proclamation of Mary, Queen of Scots, previous to her marriage with Darnley,’ the last portrait for which Sir Walter Scott sat, by Sir W. Allan (bought for the National Gallery of London), 50 [pounds]; ‘A Fete Champetre,’ a charming composition of 22 figures, from the collection of Roscoe, the historian, by Watteau (was bought by a dealer in pictures from Paris) 735 [pounds].” Additionally, it should be noted that Dr. Nasmyth had a comprehensive library. Nearly four years after his death the family decided to auction his books. According to the Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette “Next Thursday there will be a sale at Sotheby’s in Wellington Street, London, which will no doubt attract a large number of north country bibliographers. The library of the late Mr. Robert Nasmyth of Edinburgh will then be disposed of. From an early copy of the catalogue, we see that it comprises a number of books of extraordinary rarity and also many important manuscripts and autograph letters. Among the books, there is a copy of Bishop Gawin Douglas’s translation of Virgil in Scottish metre, and also first and second editions of Shakespeare’s plays.” Dr. Robert Nasmyth died at his residence following a period of ill-health on 12 May 1870 at the age of 78.7
His obituary simply stated, “At 5 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, on the 12th inst., Robert Nasmyth Esq., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, in his 79th [sic] year.” He was buried near the north wall of Dean Cemetery with members of his family.
Mention should be made of Robert Nasmyth’s older brother, Alexander who also became an eminent dental surgeon in his own right. Alexander was born on 13 April 1789 in Edinburgh. He had been brought up by his uncle, presumably John Brown Nasmyth, whose bookbinding business he entered. When the business failed he worked as a dental apprentice to Robert but later relocated to London where he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons where he set up his dental practice on Sackville Street but by the summer of 1830 moved to 13A George Street, Hanover Square where he remained in practice until his death. This is evident by his listing in the 1841 England Census for St. George, Hanover Square, Middlesex which showed him as being 45 years of age, a surgeon; along with his wife, Marianne age 40.
In August of 1839, Dr. Alexander Nasmyth gave a report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Birmingham on his work entitled The cellular structure of the ivory enamel and pulp of the teeth as well as of the epithelium, and on some other interesting points of odontology. This lecture would be incorporated in a subsequent work entitled Three memoirs on the development and structure of the teeth and epithelium which was published in 1841. Also in 1839, Nasmyth published On the Researches on the Development, Structure and Diseases of the Teeth. In this work, Nasmyth commented on John Goodsir’s recent work published also in the same year entitled On the origin and development of the pulps and sacs of the human teeth writing “Mr. Goodsir commences his paper by an excellent account of the appearances presented on the dissection of fifteen human embryos, at different periods of development after the sixth week.”
Nasmyth was also a Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and in 1840 delivered a lecture “On the functions of the mouth, and the structure of recent and fossil teeth” to the Royal Institution. On 11 August 1840 Buckingham Palace announced the “appointment of Alexander Nasmyth, Esq., to be surgeon-dentist to HRH Prince Albert.” Five years later Nasmyth was appointed surgeon-dentist in ordinary to her Majesty Queen Victoria. In 1846, he published his final work entitled On the human mouth. Dr. Alexander Nasmyth died on 4 August 1848 at the age of 59 and his obituary notice read “August 4 at Great Malvern, A. Nasmyth, Esq., F.R.G.S., late of London, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.”
In Dr. Robert Nasmyth’s letter of 5 August 1838, he related his technique for gold filling cavities writing “The course I generally follow is, when the hole is of a moderate size, first to open it up with a broach, and go on enlarging the hole by a succession of them till it is of such a size as will admit some of the scraping instruments to get in to cut away all the caries; and it is generally best, when it can be made equally wide at top and bottom. I then dry the cavity and take means to keep it dry by putting a bit of lint into it while I prepare the gold; then, when I begin to place in the gold, I probably wipe the tooth and neighborhood with a dry napkin, sometimes making the patient keep the cheek or tongue out of the way with a bent spatula covered with a bit of rag. The gold I prefer is the large size, of which I send you some. Of this, I tear a strip of about an inch broad, put it together like a loose rope, and when the hole is very large, make a sort of ball at one end, which I first put into the hole and press in as much more as fills it completely, always taking care that there is a quantity left at the mouth of the hole more than necessary to fill it. It ought then to be all gone over with a pointed instrument, to make sure that the hole is solid. If any hallow part should be detected, a separate piece, of smaller size, may be put in, if there be not gold enough at the mouth of the hole to fill this with; and I consider it rather an advantage that this be incorporated with the superabundant part, before the hole be laid down for burnishing. I have had opportunities of seeing teeth treated in this way, remaining firm and solid for twenty years. The chief advantage of the gold being I one continuous piece, is, that when you have got a beginning made, your left hand is at liberty to assist in keeping the tooth clear or in steadying the jaw.”
As Gold was a common material, Dr. Nasmyth made use of the properties of this malleable mineral on a regular basis throughout his career. But whether or not Nasmyth’s early application of gold for fillings was unique in the early 1830s cannot be stated for certain without detailed research about when and how widespread was the use of gold fillings by other British dentists.
In 1869 an American explorer, Charles Francis Hall was taken by local Inuit to a shallow grave containing the well-preserved skeletal remains and fragments of clothing. The grave was discovered near the mouth of the Peffer River on King William Island and after removing the remains from the grave, the expedition erected a stone cairn over the site. The remains were subsequently sent back to England where the renowned biologist Thomas Henry Huxley later identified them as Lieutenant Henry Le Vesconte. The remains were interred beneath the Franklin Memorial at Greenwich Old Royal Naval College, London in January of 1873. If it is discovered that Le Vesconte family were personally known to Admiral Richardson or persons around him, it may that the “identification” was seen as a comfort to the Le Vesconte family particularly following Captain John Rae’s revelations concerning cannibalism. Interestingly, the coffin’s memorial is to an “unknown member of the Franklin Expedition” which gave comfort to all relatives, as later happened with the twentieth-century entombment of “The Unknown Soldier” within Westminster Abbey.
In 2009, renovations of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College necessitated disinterment of the purported remains of Le Vesconte and upon examination found the “well-preserved and fairly complete skeleton of a young adult male of European ancestry.” Further forensic analysis now offered the surprising possibility that the remains belonged to the expedition’s Assistant Surgeon and Naturalist, Dr. Harry Goodsir. When Dr. Simon Mays of English Heritage and colleagues examined the enamel of one of the teeth they found that the strontium-oxygen ratio suggested that the man had more than likely came from Northern Britain which matched Goodsir’s profile having resided in Scotland and was of an appropriate age and height.
Further evidence also suggests that the gold filling in a premolar tooth could very well have been filled by Dr. Robert Nasmyth. In their findings, Dr. Mays and colleagues stated “There is a caries cavity in the mesial side of the crown of the right maxillary first premolar. It measures 2.2 x 1.6 mm and is filled by gold foil which has been pressed into the cavity. The mesial face of this tooth and the distal face of the crown of the adjacent canine are flattened and show fine, parallel, horizontal striations. These striations suggest than an abrasive process produced the flattened surfaces here; presumably, a fine file was drawn back and forth between the teeth in order to make sufficient space so that the gold foil could be tamped into the cavity in the premolar. Small files of suitable for this purpose were a common part of dentists’ equipment at that time.”
As one of the few surviving members of this once illustrious medical family of Fife, it is the author’s guarded supposition that the dentist most likely to have treated Dr. Harry Goodsir was family friend Dr. Robert Nasmyth, and furthermore, that the dental work described by Dr. Mays is wholly consistent with the description of the gold dental filling technique written by Dr. Nasmyth in 1838. While the circumstantial evidence is tantalizing, there is as yet no incontrovertible forensic evidence of a link between the gold filling of the “Unknown sailor of the Franklin expedition” and Dr. Nasmyth. This work is presented in the hope that further analysis and research will be conducted. Ultimately, the author is content there is at least a possibility that these remains belonged to a kinsman, but whatever the case, he is confident Dr. Harry Goodsir would simply ask that true respect be apportioned to the remains of an Erebus officer. The author would encourage any surviving descendants of Sir John Franklin, James Fitzjames, Graham Gore, H.T.D. Le Vesconte and Stephen Samuel Stanley to come forward to not only assist with the identification of “The Unknown Sailor,” but also support the research of the much larger unsolved questions about the Franklin expedition, which still remains the largest loss of life in the history of polar exploration.
