Review of Dental Literature and Art. [Volume: 2, Issue: 3, October, 1860, pp. 170-176]

REVIEW OF DENTAL LITERATURE AND ART.

175

so strong a manner, that they may be said to constitute eras in the history
of that particular calling.
"I look upon the present as one of these times in the history of dentistry. For the past few years the profession has been feeling its way in
its attempts at organization, and has been experimenting on the best plan
of association. Among the experiments that have been tried has been
that of a popular convention. In making this experiment the broadest
basis of membership was taken, and the largest liberty extended to every
man who chose to call himself a dentist. None could be excluded, however deficient he might be in all that goes to make up the qualifications of
a dentist. Good, bad, and indifferent, all stood upon a common level, and
the voice of the merest tyro was as potent as that of him who had had
years of experience, and who had spent the best of his life in patient
study and unremitting toil.
"This popular movement, however, has not been as successful as its
advocates had hoped and supposed that it would be. While it has failed
to accomplish the purpose for which it was set on foot, it has still performed its use, and has helped to open the way to something better, and,
I trust, more permanent. It has exhibited the tendencies of the professional mind, and has served to bring together distant members of the profession, and showed them not only the practicability and utility, but also
the necessity of organized associations. Like the first beginnings of government, where the people assemble together on a common basis, and take
the first actual steps toward that more perfect organization which is to
follow, so this gathering in of the masses of the profession served to initiate a better feeling among them, and to beget a desire for a general and
thorough organization of the whole profession.
"In the performance of this great work, certain principles should be
set up as land-marks to guide our actions and prevent our going astray.
"On the one hand it is proper to avoid that exclusiveness which tends
to lodge the interests of the profession in the hands of a few, and, on the
other hand, certain guards should be thrown around, which would protect
it from the designs of ambitious but unworthy men. It is within these
limits that we are to look for success; and while it is proper that we
should profit by the experience of others, it can hardly be expected that
we should copy even after 'the brightest intellects of the age.' The members of the dental profession have never been prone to walk in a beaten
track, or to follow the lead of any particular class of men; individuality
has always been one of their leading characteristics, and I regard it as
one of the glories of the profession that it has ever been marked by a
spirit of independence which has led its members to throw aside old forms
and usages, and to strike out in new channels. This spirit is necessary
for the development of a young profession, and leads men to try new
things, throwing aside what is not good, and adopting all that experience
shows to be useful.
"I have been led into making these remarks in view of the approaching meeting of the delegate convention in Washington. I look upon
this movement as the most promising of any that has yet taken place,
and desire to improve this opportunity of recording my sentiments in
favor of the representative system."
DENTAL REGISTER OF THE WEST-SEPTEMBER.
The accompanying remarks embody, in a few words, excellent advice
with regard to the propriety of inserting preparatory dentures immedi