Dental Science. [Volume: 2, Issue: 12, July, 1861, pp. 664-666]

EDITORIAL.

665

liberal. After the gentleman became satisfied that our moral character
was good, and that we would be worthy of admission into the profession,
the pecuniary arrangements were about to be made and the period of
pupilage agreed upon, when, to our amazement, the time was to be three
weeks! We fell back for a few days' reflection, when we finally declined
to accept the arrangements. We did not so much decline the proffered
arrangement from any want of a belief that we could not learn a great
deal in three weeks, but we did not think we could get the worth of our
money in so short a time-one hundred and fifty dollars!
We had learned everything else in life so slowly, that to acquire one
hundred and fifty dollars' worth of knowledge in so short a time, taxed
our credulity; but to impart to us some confidence that the time was sufficient, a gentleman of about thirty years of age was introduced to us,
who had been studying only one week, and he declared himself perfectly
satisfied; and his preceptor was to give him a certificate that he was fully
competent to practice all the branches of the art I Still we declined the
opportunity, and started in pursuit of another respectable member of the
profession in full practice. He did not charge any more as a fee for pupilage, but required the long and protracted period of three months, to
properly acquire a perfect knowledge of everything I and that was what
we were after.
We need hardly exclaim here, deluded youth! We put in the time, obtained the desired certificate that everything was right, but our daily wants
revealed to us that we were standing on a very narrow basis. Fortunately
our wants and common sense dictated to us that a much broader field of
knowledge and study was absolutely essential, so we resorted to the study
of the medical profession to obtain those principles of knowledge which
might open to us a better understanding of our daily wants in the practice of the profession of our adoption. Together with this we availed
ourselves of every opportunity of association with members of the profession to obtain from them their modes of manipulation and practice,
adopting everything which squared up with the sciences taught by our
medical studies. In this way it required ten years of patient industry,
day and night, to acquire a respectable knowledge of the simple art of
dentistry; since which time we have not been idle in the pursuit of
khowledge, and still we have much to learn. We can say here, without
boast, that our opportunities for twenty-four years have been ample to
experiment on our own impressions, as well as to witness the results of
others of every grade in the profession as well as of every country almost
in which dentistry is practiced, and still there seems to be much confusion
in our noble art. This should not be; there is too much haste on the
part of the young to advance in practice; there is too much self-reliance
upon individual ability or natural capacity; not enough submission to and
dependence upon the acquisition of the details of science; too many seek