Day, Barnabas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Anne Dale, “DAY, BARNABAS W.,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/day_barnabas_w_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Dentist; b. 2 July 1833 in Kingston Township, Upper Canada, son of Calvin Woster Day, a farmer, and Elizabeth Wright; m. first 27 April 1859 Hannah Ford in Kingston, and they had one son and one daughter; m. secondly 1871 Elizabeth Powers, and they had two sons; m. thirdly 1886 in Davenport, Iowa, Mrs Addie N. Rambow; d. 3 Aug. 1907 in Los Angeles.
    • On 1 Nov. 1855 he paid $200 to study for one year with John P. Sutton, a dentist at Kingston. When Sutton moved to Brantford in April 1856, Day, with only some six months of training, set up a practice in Kingston. He later described his laboratory equipment as consisting of “a charcoal furnace, anvil, sledge hammer, work bench and a reasonable set of bench tools necessary for gold base plate work, the only material used for artificial dentures at that time,” and his instruments of “a few long handled burs, rotated between thumb and finger . . . , a stud thimble with a cup in the palm of the hand for pressure, [and] . . . a fine set of forceps.” “I felt my way carefully,” he remarked, “and determined to make no mistake, for I knew in my own mind that I was not qualified, but was forced to make up what I did not know with cheek or a bold front.” 
    •  When Brewster also asked other dentists their “opinion as to incorporating the dentists by act of Parliament, and obliging all those who in future may wish to practice in Canada, to pass a proper examination before a Board of Dentists,” he reported that they were unanimously in favour of these measures. By 1866 Day, one of perhaps as many as 175 dentists in Upper Canada, was, in addition, concerned with the inroads the introduction of the use of rubber for dentures was allowing itinerant dentists to make. He wrote to all the “reliable members of the profession . . . from Ottawa to Hamilton” to convene them in Toronto on 3 Jan. 1867. Nine men attended the meeting and Day was in the chair; committees were established to propose legislation for the consideration of the government and to draw up by-laws for an association. A draft of a bill was discussed at a second meeting in July, when the Ontario Dental Association was formed with Day as president.
    • Day is considered the architect of organized dentistry in Ontario. The 1868 act which he promoted had an immense impact not only in Canada but also in the United States and other countries.
  • Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2102
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