The Demands of the Age Upon Dental Science. [Volume: 2, Issue: 2, September, 1860, pp. 68-71]

68

THE DENTAL COSMOS.

which is ever the mark of the highest style of man, and which should,
especially, characterize the professional man.
The general excitement and dread attending this operation is often
very great, especially where the subject is young, or a person feeble in
health, with a nervo-sanguineous temperament; so much is this the case,
that it is frequently deferred for months, and even years, until an agony
of suffering forces submission. All such instances call for the exercise of
great patience, candor, and gentleness, yet force and decision.
Promptness, self-possession, and determination, or, in one word, executiveness, coupled with ingenuousness and intelligence, will always establish in the mind of the patient the claim of skill and ability, without the
blow of trumpets or the clash of arms. But, where these qualities are
wanting, neither assumed nor conceded professional reputation, or
vaunted scholastic advantages and endowments, will either supply their
place or efface the idea of rudeness, inefficiency, and arrogance. Real
merit and quality should be the basis of professional character-for the
universal law of equilibrium must eventually determine the standing of
every man.
When approaching this operation there should never be a great flourish
of instruments, by a studied arrangement of them before the eye of the
patient, as though an expectation was entertained that their use might be
necessary before success should crown the effort; neither should this
inauspicious moment be the occasion for sharpening the lancet, and in
sundry ways to test the keenness of its edge. These, and many other
things which might be enumerated, though thoughtlessly performed, and
in themselves trifles, depend upon it, have their influence, and will detract
very much from the aggregate of those manly qualities which constitute
the true gentleman, the ripe scholar, and the finished and expert operator.
Thanking you, gentlemen, for your kind indulgence, I close with this
sentiment:THE DENTAL SURGEON-May his ingeniousness, erudition, skill, and
integrity ever be commensurate with the demands which the age has upon
his profession.
THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE UPON DENTAL SCIENCE.
BY GEO. T. BARKER, D.D.S.
[Read before the American Dental Association, Washington, D. C., Aug. 1860.]
IT may be well at this time to stop for a moment and consider what
are now the true demands upon the dental profession, and inquire whether
those demands are being met by hearty and earnest colaborers, in a profession that has the high and praiseworthy aim of alleviating human
suffering, and whose office is the restoration of health and happi