mmmmm
»  /
\.
)€)
VALEDICTORY
DELIVERED BEFORE THb.
GRADUATING CLASS
^©
alirmore College of genial Jiwrgerg,
MARCH 25, 1853.
PHILIP II. AUSTEN, A. M., M. D.
/r
  BALTIMORE:
JOHN W. WOODS, PRINTER.
1853.
$mwM 
                  BALTIMORE


     College  of Rental  burger]),


                 INSTITUTED,  A.  D.  1840.




                            Chapin A  Harris, A. M., M. D.,
                         Prof, of Principles and Practice cf Dental Surgery.
                           Thomas E. Bond, Jr., A. M., M. D.
                          Professor of Special  Pathology and Therapeutics.
                             Washington R. Handy, M. D.,
                               Prof, of Anatomy and Physiology.
                               Alfred A. Blandy, M.  D.,
                               Professor of Operative Dentistry.
                            Philip H. Austen, A. M., M. D.,
                               Professor of Mechanical Dentistry,
                          Reginald N. Wright, A. M., M. 1).,
                             Lecturer on Chemistry and Metallurgy.

   The Faculty take pleasure in announcing  that they have removed to
 the new and  commodious  College,  corner  of Lombard and  Hanover
 streets, the location of which is central and very convenient, and its rooms
 large, well lighted and abundantly supplied with  hot  and  cold   water.
 Their means and plan of instruction are now so greatly enlarged and  im-
 proved, that they have no hesitation in saying that the facilities for a course
 of thorough Dental, Medical and Surgical teaching,  in  connection  with
 the complete system of practical training, now presented by  this old  and
 well established Institution, are surpassed by those of no  other College,
 and certainly cannot be equalled by those of any private office.
   The chair of "Operative and Mechanical Dentistry"  has been  divided,
 and each of its twofold  duties assigned to a  separate Professor.  A Lec-
 ureship on Chemistry has also been  established,  under the  charge of a
 gentleman well known as a Professor of Chemistry and an excellent Prac-
 tical Chemist.  These important advantages  will be attended  by  no in-
 creased expense to the student.  A very valuable Chemical Apparatus has
just been purchased by the College at great expense.   For want of such
apparatus no adequate instruction  in this important branch has heretofore
been given.
                      Continued on 3d page of Cover.
 
YALEDICTORY
delivered before the
GRADUATING CLASS
OF THE
aliimore College of §mH jSttrgerg,
MARCH 25, 1853.
       -------------1 - >
PHILIP H. AUSTEN, A. M., M. D.
         .< - >---------



     BALTIMORE:
 JOHN W. WOODS, PRINTER.
        1853. 
 
                                          Baltimore, March 12</», 1853.
Dr. P. H. Austen,
           Dear Sir :
                       We, the undersigned committee, on behalf of the
Class of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, earnestly  request a copy
of the Valedictory  Address, which  you have prepared for the ensuing Com-
mencement.
  The members of the class desire its publication, as a slight token of their ap-
preciation of your untiring efforts on their behalf during the past winter :  also,
in the confident anticipation of the very favorable  results which must attend
the dissemination of your views on the important subject you have  chosen for
your theme.
                        Very respectfully, yours,
                               M. S. TAYLOR,       ^
                                S. A. McDOWELL,    I   Committee.
                               G. L. COOKE,
                                         Baltimore, March 18th, 1853.
Gentlemen :
                    In acknowledgment of your  favor of the 12th instant,
except my thanks for the compliment you pay to my as yet unspoken thoughts,
and the flattering reasons you assign for your request of their publication.
  In placing at your disposal a copy of my intended address, permit me to ex-
press the hope that it may be found to possess, in some small degree, that merit
which you have done me the honor to anticipate.
                                         Very sincerely, yours,
                                                     P. H.  AUSTEN.
  To Messrs. Taylor, McDowell and Cooke. 
 
ADDRESS.
                   ---------------------«■»«»»----------------------


   A man may redeem the follies of his youth; a science correct
 the mistakes of its infancy.   The arts of medicine and surgery
 have thrown over the ignorance and misconduct of their  youth-
 ful days a thick veil of noble deeds, lofty aims, profound learn-
 ing and heroic self devotion.  If to the art of dentistry, young-
 est  in this  noble hand of three, that  stand to minister at the
 altar of suffering humanity, there still  clings  some of the re-
 proach of her  early associations, it is not because she is more
 lowly born than  they.  The deeds of her childhood might well
 be the boast of riper years; they give sure promise of a matu-
 rity of which her elder sisters shall have full reason to be proud.
 Now, in the broad twilight of the present, to make the dark-
 ness of the  past  forgotten  in the brightness of the future, in-
 crease  onward and upward till it shall reach the fullness of
 noonday splendor—this, gentlemen, is your mission.
   Waste not  in eulogy  upon your art the precious  time that
 should  be spent in acting out its duties: better to show what a
 dentist can  and  must  be than stop to draw a picture of what
 he ought to be.  The world may  admire the picture, but they
 will judge by the reality.   You  may  prove, by arguments the
 most conclusive, the necessity of education and science; yet the
 arguments will weigh little,  if the unlettered and  ignorant are
 allowed admission into your ranks.  You may talk ever so elo-
 quently about  the  dignity of your art;  yet if, in the pride of
your learning, you seek to put away from you one  of the  duties
of that art, as in  any wise beneath you—dental science is
       2 
6
wounded in the house  of her friend, and  the blow is the more
deeply felt because inflicted by the hand of a traitor.
  But gentlemen, graduates of the Baltimore College, you have
not so learned the science and art of dentistry.   I do only re-
peat to you some of those truths that we have sought in these
halls to impress  upon  your memory, when  I this evening ask
your attention to a few thoughts touching the harmony which
marks the inseparable  elements of your art, its relation to the
kindred arts of medicine and surgery, lastly the spirit and the
purpose which must attend your life  henceforth, if  you would
seek to honor yourselves and your profession.
  John Foster was refused the hand of one he loved, until  "he
should prove to the world  that  he was what she knew him to
be:" his essays of world wide  fame revealed at once the great-
ness of his mind  and  the depth of his affection.  Gentlemen,
your profession asks of you what you should  prove yourselves,
before the world, to be such as she knows her votaries can  and
ought  to be ; until you give this evidence of the strength  and
reality of your devotion, I sincerely trust she may refuse to  you
any of the honors  and  emoluments that are in her gift.
  Permit me a few preliminary words upon the title  which  you
purpose to assume. Your diploma styles you uDoctores Dentium
Chirurgice:" terms of complete  and significant  import.   But
to their usual translation, Doctors of  Dental  Surgery; as  also
to the phrases surgeon  dentist, dental surgeon, surgical and  me-
chanical dentist, there  are these objections:  the  three first are
inadequate to express  the extent of your  duties, while the  last
is either absurd or it implies what is untrue.
  Surgery in the full  sense of the original "chirurgia" which
is precisely rendered by our saxon word "handicraft," covers the
entire ground of dental art.  Not so,  however, the present  sig-
nificance of that word, which the usage of centuries has now so
fixed, that it were unwise and unsafe to attempt to alter or ex-
tend it.   In either sense the skill presupposes knowledge and
judgment; but the limitation of that skill, when  the word is
applied  to your  art, is  fully confessed in the common use of
that most awkward of  titles "surgeon and mechanical dentist." 
7
As properly might you say anatomical and operative surgeon, or
pathological and therapeutical  physician.  We do  not say sur-
gical aurist, or occular surgeon:  for the aurist and the occulist
treat the medical as well as surgical diseases of their respective
organs.  Therefore to  him, who must  bring medical, surgical
and  mechanical skill into such constant and harmonious exercise
as your profession requires, that term is most appropriate which
will  at once express all his  duties.   This you will find in the
comprehensive name "Dentist."  Discarding then all phrases of
partial significance, let this, gentlemen, be the name which it shall
be your delight to honor.    Put away from you the insinuation
of inferiority which those  imply who seek  to prefix  to it the
term surgeon, and acknowledge the right of none  to its adop-
tion, who are  not qualified in all that it comprehends.
   Dentistry, in all  its  completeness, has  so wide  a range of
affiliations, that should the student confine  himself within the
limit of its collateral arts and sciences, a lifetime could not com-
plete them.  In that knowledge of the entire human system which
is essential to the proper treatment of any part he is brother to
the physician; in  some of his operations, to the surgeon, and in
others, to the  artisan.  The chemist also must be  his instructor,
and  in the cultivation of a correct taste which alone shall enable
him  to adopt his work to  the peculiar expression  of his  patient,
he must learn of the artist and sculptor; not pursuing this, the
aesthetic element of his art, in a mere epicurean enjoyment of
beauty, but for the higher purposes of usefulness and beneficence.
   Among these relatives of dental science, there is one whom,
I regret to think, some of her votaries are loth to acknowledge:
some who would wish to exclude from the list of essential duties
such as are in any wise mechanical.   They will have the world
to understand that a mechanic and a dental  SM-geon have very
little in common.   It is a questionable title of nobility, which
will admit of no condescension,  and a very feeble character, that
cannot impart dignity to what it touches.
   But here is no room for condescension;  nor may the superi-
ority of such  a fastidious  delicacy be  for a  moment acknowl-
edged.  If the exercise of mechanical skill is degrading per se, 
8
 then your whole art falls together.   There is scarce an operation
 performed by these surgeons in dentistry, that does not depend
 for success upon this same despised species of skill.   Is it more
 honorable, think you, to extract a tooth than to replace one: to
 handle gold foil than fashion gold plate ?  Yet this is mechan-
 ism : that is surgery.   Under such a rule the surgeon who by
 a brilliant operation removes a badly broken limb is more wor-
 thy the name than if, by means of some mechanical contrivance,
 he should aim to save it.  God help the patients were such laws
 of honor rule supreme.
  But, see you not, gentlemen, that all our faculties of mind or
 body are only instruments for the accomplishment of some pur-
 pose.  If that purpose be lofty, the means used must  share the
 honor; if the purpose  be ignoble, so also the instrument.  No
 might of intellect can  ennoble pure selfishness, nor  any hum-
 bleness of means bring a reproach on beneficence.  All the ap-
 pliances you shall bring to the perfection of your art will share
 in its elevation; whilst, in its incompleteness it can give no
 honor to its professors.
  Why should that mechanical skill be a reproach to you, which
 is enshrined in the memories of a Watt, an Arkwright, a Fulton
 and  a Whitney: which is  inseparable  from the fame of Sir
 Joseph Paxton, Sir Charles Fox or Robert Stephenson ?  It is
 no blot on the spotless memory of Newton, that he made a tel-
 escope with his own hands; nor does it lessen our estimation of
 the important discoveries of Lewenhoeck, that his microscopes
 were the  work of his own fingers.  Boyle, Davy, Wollaston and
 Faraday  enjoy a  higher fame by virtue of that  ingenious and
 skilful dexterity, without the aid of which all the might of their
intellects would have failed to unfold many of those hidden mys-
teries of nature which it is their glory to have revealed.  When
the brush of the painter,  or the chisel of  the sculptor shall  be
thought to tarnish the genius that guides them; then, but only
then, may you look down upon the tools, wherewith you must
work out the high and useful purposes of your art.
  Upon skill apart from  its purpose, as  upon intellect unap-
plied, judgment is suspended.  In the automaton flute  player of 
9
 Vaucansen, the wonderful clock of Strasburg and the calculating
 engine of Babbage we have the  same marvelous  ingenuity.
 Yet we view the first with regret, because of its utter uselessness;
 the second with mixed emotion, for there is here some purpose;
 but the third with unqualified admiration, for it seeks to achieve
 great good.  Gentlemen, devote your ingenuity to a noble pur-
 pose and you  need not fear it will degrade you.   This  false
 estimate of mechanism, in itself considered, grows out of a nat-
 ural proneness to give to a thing the rank of its associations.
 Very properly we judge a man  by the company  he keeps, and
 an art by the character of the mass of its followers.  Nor should
 we accuse the world of harsh judgment because the art and the
 man may perchance be unjust to themselves.
   So long as  dental practitioners bring  to  their calling igno-
 rance, with its host of prejudices,  and  succeed in making the
 world believe that their malpractice is dentistry—what wonder
 if men of science refuse fraternity with these, or the world place
 a low estimate  upon such pretension.  When the artisan quits
 a craft of which he is master, and aspires to an art of which he is
 ignorant, it is not the artisan that is despised, or his skill, but the
 imposter and his  incompetence.   The artisan, however humble
 his position, may be the faithful steward of all the faculties and
 opportunities given him.  Upright integrity may mark his hum-
 ble course, and as a man, made  in the image of his God,  it is
 not for me to look down upon him. Nay, I would clasp the hand
 of such an one in friendship far sooner than that of many, who,
 in the  pride of intellect, do deeds unworthy of humanity.
        Homo sum et humani nihil a me alienum puto.
   Let  not a Christian people be  put to shame by a Roman au-
 dience, as it rises in homage to this noble  sentiment of Terence.
   When the mere mechanic  lays claim to proficiency in your
 art without that specific education which  its  duties  require,  he
 at once sacrifices  any previously  good name  by  the dishonesty
of promising what he cannot perform.  It is not his skill  that
dishonors, but the ignorance that knows not how rightly to ap-
ply it.   The community at large arc not however prepared thus 
10
to discriminate.   Nor, gentlemen,  until you shall  unfold the
full capabilities of your science, and prove  in yourselves what
extent of intellectual culture is essential for the mastery of its
difficulties,  can you be said to have done your part in removing
from dentistry the reproach of her infancy.   Still more recreant
will you be to the trust we this evening impose on you, if, pos-
sessed of science and much learning, you imply by your course
of action that any thing in the cycle of a dentist's duties is un-
worthy of your careful attention.
  I have called dentistry youngest sister in the great family of the
art of healing, and thus expressed the closeness of its relation to
medicine and surgery: a relationship which, until recently, they
have been loth to own.  Whence, may I ask, this reluctance ? Not
from any disapproval of its end and aims, for they are parallel
with their own:  not from  dislike of the means that must  be em-
ployed, for they are similar:  not because it is a specialty, for
their own ranks are full of specialists in  highest repute: but
because of  the want of scientific information prevailing  among
dentists as  a class, the consequent and palpable imperfection of
their operations, and because of those  acts and modes of prac-
tice so common among them, from which a man of true profes-
sional pride holds himself carefully aloof as characteristic of
charletanism and imposture.
  These, the mistakes of unlettered infancy, your profession is
rapidly correcting: its capacities are  becoming developed with
a precocious rapidity no where  surpassed in  this most progres-
sive of ages and countries.   The past  ten  years have done for
dentistry what a  century could not accomplish in the younger
days of medicine and surgery,and these sciences should remember
the follies of their own youth, before they visit with too harsh a
judgment the more recent and more venial errors of your own.
Surgery was  many centuries  old, when Fabricius, preceptor
of the immortal Harvey, discovered the following improved and
easy mode  of  removing a  tumor:  "If it be  movable, I cut it
away with  a red hot knife, that sears as it cuts;  but if it be ad-
hered to the chest, I  cut  it,  without bleeding or pain,  with  a
wooden or  horn knife, soaked in aqua fortis; with which, hav- 
I]
ing cut the skin, I dig out the rest with my fingers."  When the
College of Surgeons of Edinburg was incorporated, it was a pre-
requisite of membership that the applicant should  be  able to
"read and write, to know the anatomie, nature and  complexion
of everie member of humanis nature; and lykewayes  to know
all vaynes of the same, that he may flewbothemie in dew time."
If such, gentlemen, were the extent of your surgical  knowledge,
you would not now be holding  the  diploma of this  College.
Medicine too, when far older than your  art now is,  was rife
with abuses greater than  any dentistry has ever known;  but
against them what invaluable discoveries and glorious achieve-
ments have we not to offset.
  So now  is your profession rapidly redeeming the past, and
proving  her indisputable right to  that high seat among the
sciences, which she claims in virtue of  her  noble birth.  Men
whose talent and education would adorn any calling, she now
numbers by hundreds:  a few  years  since they  might have
been counted by tens.  Her Avork is done with a certainty and
success which medicine cannot equal.   She is forming a litera-
ture of  her own; and within her borders are springing  up  col-
leges which have already done much, and are destined to do yet
more in dispelling the  darkness of ignorance, and shedding
abroad the light of truth and science.
  I speak not these words with the purpose of eulogy upon this,
or any other dental college.   To their graduates no eulogium is
necessary; while to the world, the character of their alumni will
more truly tell their worth than any words of praise.  I am no
friend to that endless multiplication of colleges, each vying with
the other who shall make easiest the terms of graduation, and
fearing to reject an unworthy candidate least future students shun
so strict a school—until a diploma is scarce worth more than so
much  parchment,  the  name  Doctor  no  warrant of  much
learning, and the title of  Professor  no guarantee of any pecu-
liar talent.   Of medical schools our favored land  has quite a
sufficiency: but the right training of the dental student  is in so
great a degree distinct from that of the tyro in medicine, as
to make imperative the demand for separate colleges of  den- 
12
tistry.  Perhaps I cannot better express my views of the true
relation between the three branches of  the healing art than by
a brief consideration of this necessity.
   The peculiarities of dentistry which call for this separatencss
of instruction are first its specialty, secondly the great  impor-
tance of manual dexterity: the  latter demanding a new adjust-
ment of time; the former  a new  direction of general studies.
Take any of the several branches  of medical science  and the
full mastery of that one demands that it shall be the prominent
subject of study during  a lifetime;  especially if you seek to
penetrate beyond what is known into the  region of discovery.
True, the need for  this concentration of thought is  a confes-
sion of the imperfection of  our faculties; but in its very univer-
sality  it  ceases to  be humiliating.   Few  indeed are  those
minds of giant grasp of whom it may be said unihil  erat quod
non  tetigit, nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."
   Therefore in either the elementary studies, anatomy, physiol-
ogy, botany and chemistry;  or their more complex and more
practical modifications, surgery, therapeutics, pathology and ma-
teria medica, thorough instruction is altogether impossible,wheth-
er we make the term of study three  years, seven years, or a life-
time.  Partial teaching is  all that  the most admirable school
can give, and this best, when the general outlines of each science
are filled in with a minuteness,  proportioned in its  nature to
the profession to be taught, in its degree  to  the time spent in
preparation.   In this harmonious adaptation of studies  to  the
end sought, much judgment is called for.   If the subjects taught
are too few, knowledge is defective: if too many, it becomes
superficial:  and if not adapted to the  profession  chosen, it is
unpractical.   Greatly is the difficulty increased if  the term of
study is shortened or  if several  pursuits  are attempted to be
taught in one.
  Five years would not be  misspent in the prosecution of those
studies which go to qualify the physician or the surgeon for the
practice of their respective duties.    But the  sphere  of each,
however much they may have in common  are yet widely differ-
ent,  requiring  difference of talent, and  in these five  years of 
13
 preparation demanding difference in the books to be read,  lec-
 tures  to  be  heard and  clinical practice  to  be witnessed.   In
 England  and  Europe the distinctness  of these professions is
 maintained in their education, their  titles, their societies  and
 their sphere  of practical duties.   But in our country, from the
 operation of causes into which it is not now the fit time nor place
 to inquire, this  separateness is maintained neither in education
 or in practice.  That this is not right needs perhaps no  better
 proof than the  existence of one or more physicians  in  every
 city or community, to whom  the acknowledgment of peculiar
 fitness has assigned a practice especially surgical.  Who does
 not know that our first surgeons are seldom our best physicians ?
 No  science  can  boast  many Macaulays  or Broughams, the
 healing art has few of such "double first class  men."  To these
 who, by intuitive address, open the treasuries of art and skill, it
 is permitted  to  range over the whole cyclopedia of knowledge:
 but upon those, who  only  by dint of  patience and  perseverance
 can force back the stubborn lock of  learning, it lies incumbent
 to give a resolute concentrated purpose to the chosen duty of life,
 whether in the study that is to fit for action, or in the action it-
 self.  If then so apart lie the work of the surgeon and the work of
 the physician, that talent for  one does not insure success  in the
 other; so wide their several spheres  that the lifetime and ge-
 nius of no one man can  raise  him to highest excellence in both;
 so diverse in much the training for either, that a due  economy
 of time demands an education for the former separate from the
 latter: do I claim aught that is  unreasonable or absurd for den-
 tal science, embracing as she  does a third class of characteristic
 and essential duties,  when I ask that she  shall  be allowed, in
 colleges of her own, to adapt  the elements  of instruction to
 wants of  which she is the best judge, and so as  to promote an
 honor of  which she is the proper guardian ?
   If again, in a five  years course of tuition,  this  modification
 of the principles of the  healing  art, according to  the wants of
 its  several practical  departments, becomes necessary, in view
 both of a wise economy  of time  and  fitness  of preparation ;  a
fortiori, is it  essential when the impatient haste of Americanism
        3 
14
reduces that course to four, three or two years, and makes the
last the most common period of study.   True  such haste may
not be defended.   The cautious Englishman may err in giving
those years of his manhood  to  the study of the experience  of
others, which might better be spent  in  treasuring up the more
impressive  and better remembered  lessons of his own.  But
when the American, eager for action, goes forth to the contest
with pain and disease, before he has learned  so  much  as the
general principles of this art of war, too often the graves  of
his friends will be thicker  on the field of battle than those  of
his foes.  The charge of life and health is not so light that
it  may be assumed  without preparation, or  so easy  that it
may be learned in  a day.  Our prominent medical  schools,  in
whose power it is to control the period of preparation,  incur a
fearful responsibility, when, in the  spirit of  unlawful  rivalry
and for the sake of unholy gain, they send forth men who, they
well know, have not had time to become what their diplomas pro-
claim them to the world to be.
   Gentlemen, wide is the field of your usefulness, many and
difficult your duties, to the mastery of which you must bring
talent and industry.   But you are seldom  called to sickness
which is unto death;  the issues of life^ do  not often  hang  on
your operations; you are spared the painful  responsibility of
knowing that upon the casting vote of your skill depends under
God the even tie  of  existence.   Therefore we cannot ask of
the dental student a four or  five years noviciate, when that of
the medical student extends over but two  or  three.  We can
only demand as long a stay in our halls  as  they ask in theirs.
We make you as competent to your  art, as the newly fledged
physician to his.   Neither  can  do  more than lay the ground-
work, and give the plan and  specifications  for the superstruc-
ture.  Let the student in each seek to build upon that basis
which has been laid for him; otherwise  he shall find here and
there parts of his  edifice crumbling for want of support.  Be-
lieve me, gentlemen, the best planned foundation, on which  for
you to build a fair proportioned excellence, is  to be found in a
well ordered, well  adjusted, well sustained dental college.  It 
15
does not here become me to say how far the Baltimore College
fulfils these conditions.
   The inadequacy of medical schools to give even the scientific
proficiency you require, is evinced in the ignorance their gradu-
ates show of even the purposes of your art, much less its prac-
tice.  The few simple operations which the country physician is
called upon to perform, are done with a want  of  tact and judg-
ment, which leads us to hail with pleasure  a recent  movement
made to establish a dental lectureship in the  principal schools,
whereby some rays of light may shine in  upon this Egyptian
darkness.   The Baltimore  Dental College will cheerfully hail
such an appointment in the University of Maryland,  nor deem
that in so doing she is encroaching upon her  own province  of
instruction.   But it is not by any one such chair, that medical
schools can  alter that  constant  application  of  the  truths  of
science to the special wants of their students, which marks their
whole course  of teaching:  which in fact gives to that teaching
its greatest value.   Some of these specialties of medicine are
of secondary value to the dental student only because less es-
sential than others, and in  the  limited period of his schooling
they must therefore give way to what is more necessary to be
learned  to  fit him  for practice.   In the  prosecution of your
studies  hereafter, you will so seek to enlarge the boundaries of
your knowledge, as to take  in, not these alone, but many other
themes which we can, in the short months here  allowed, only
point out to you as worthy your careful study.  When, in favor
of this  pursuit of details which one will never be called upon to
apply, it is urged that, if he does not do so when a student, he
never will when a practitioner, there is that implied, of which I
trust, gentlemen, you will prove the injustice  and untruth.   If
you suffer yourselves to become  so engrossed by your profes-
sional duties that you have  no time or inclination to carry a
subject, so closely allied as  medicine, beyond  the limit of your
own practical use thereof, I  have no idea you will  do so with
any other more remote  science; nor can you ever stamp upon
your profession that mark, which  the man of cultivated mind
and enlarged acquirements is enabled to give it.   All the cram- 
16
ming of a dozen medical courses would fail to redeem you from
such a position, whether placed there  by indolence, incapacity,
or love of mere pecuniary reward.  Such knowledge as is requisite
for  the commencement of  a correct practice, we have  sought to
teach, in due measure and harmonious proportion ; while much
that will give increased beauty and dignity to that practice, we
have only pointed out for your future study.  No system of in-
struction will suffice for your training, if there dwell not within
you the power and the will to search out  the  deep  things of
science beyond their mere evident application to the necessities
of your art.  We cannot create a soul of genius under the life-
less ribs of dullness; awaken the kindling spark of ambition
beneath the dead ashes of sloth;  or impart the warmth of be-
nevolence to the cold heart of selfishness.
  Against private instruction I have nothing to urge.  In either
profession it is an undeniably valuable assistant to that system
of collegiate tuition which each demands.  But the generalities
of a medical education  cannot  be made available to the den-
tist by a few months private office instruction; nor  is the dex-
trous ingenuity of your art so readily acquired, that it may in
any justice be set aside as an after thought of easy mastery.   A
medical diploma might give warrant of your capacity as a phy-
sician, but of itself  should be accepted as no token of your fit-
ness for the specific duties of dentistry.
  While your profession had no schools of its own, its members
might be excused for protecting themselves from the charge of
ignorance by wearing the  badge of a sister art;  and American
surgery with no  separate schools must still do the same.  But
does the absence of an M. D. from the names of Liston, Brodie,
Cooper and Hunter, imply any defect in the education of those
bright stars of English surgery?   It is time the American peo-
ple should begin to understand that there may be  a title more
expressive of your proper qualification than the one of  Doctor
in Medicine.  They have  defined  your  duties for you, as  dis-
tinctly as the English have defined the surgeon's duties for him:
they must also demand a like separateness of preparation. Such
a course of  study we  have sought to mark out.  By virtue of 
17
this  we deem  you prepared, in  both the science and art of
dentistry, to commence its practice, and the peculiarity of your
fitness is expressed in your peculiarity of title.  If, gentlemen
graduates, you seek to add  to this  title  another which  you
imagine more  honorable, instead of proving to the world  that
yours is the best guarantee of proficiency, you become recreant
to the cause  of your alma  mater; false  to  your noble  pro-
fession, whom you thereby confess to be incapable of teaching
her own practice and principles.
  Let us turn  now for a few moments from the science to her
votaries:  from the art to the artist:  from dentistry in  the ab-
stract to that concrete reality, which each of you severally shall
make it, for it is  upon this reality that  the world will base its
judgment of the honor, usefulness and rank of your profession.
Remember that dental science is young and has yet to achieve
distinction for herself.   Her nobility of soul will never suffer
her to owe position to her sisters' greatness, or sit content in
the reflected light of their brilliant achievements. She acknowl-
edges no splendor of name to gild profligacy or crime; no in-
heritance  of past deeds to be squandered in idleness; no historic
renown to cover ignorance  and stupidity.   Stripped of the  false
glare, which some titles shed  on worthlessness, you have so far
the advantage of the physician, that you have no temptation to
rest in a name that you have not earned, or boast  a  dignity
which you do  not  deserve.   Another advantage also  you have,
in that the success of your labor is more sure, and its appeal to
the community more direct:  they can more accurately judge of
your merit, and your reputation is  not so much the thing of
chance and  caprice.  Want of success may be  a physician's
misfortune, but the sin of your failure will lie at your own door.
   He who would  hope to enjoy these advantages must be an
earnest, willing worker.   Labor is the lot of man:  to some  a
blessing and to some a curse.   The labor of mere drudgery and
the harder toil of indolence is a grievous  burden: but for him
who, tasking his energies for some high and holy  purpose, goes
forth to a life of  usefulness, it is sweetened  by duty  and re-
warded by honor. 
18
          "That, like an emmet, thou must ever toil
          Is a sad sentence of an ancient date,
          And certes there is for it reason great:
          For though it sometimes make thee weep and wail,
          And curse thy stars, and early rise and late,
          Withouten that would come an heavier bale,
          Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale."
  In your ranks there is no room for the sluggard, no place for
the mere dilettante.  The vain and empty trifler, indulging in
idle sentiment, or in wild  speculation, with no higher end be-
fore him than  self  indulgence, and  failing to  accomplish any
work that may promote the welfare of his race—the humblest
laborer that  goes forth in cheerfulness to his daily toil, is a
greater, because more useful man than he.  There is a task of
difficulty before you, and  with a brave  strong heart  you must
advance to its mastery.  If ye are men, with the energies and
affections of men, healthful, strong, true hearted  men, no diffi-
culties shall stay your onward march; nor shall the fair domains
of your science much longer lie under the scourge of the ram-
pant Minotaur of ignorance.
  In  this devotion to your  cause, I do not ask you to  neglect
self interest, or repress aspirations after fame.  But true self
love has no sympathy with blind  selfishness; a lofty ambition
has nothing in common with a vulgar thirst for notoriety.  He
who is greedy of applause is in danger of  seeking favor by un-
worthy means ; nor, while drinking in deep draughts of praise,
will be apt to take heed how the purity of the waters is tainted
by the source whence  they flow.   He  again whose thoughts
rise no  higher than his own interests; who views his art only
as a mint for the coinage of gold, and values his patients by the
amount of their contributions to his treasury—such a one is no
object of envy,  had he the wealth of Croesus;  no honor  to your
science, though he live in all  the splendid magnificence of Lu-
cullus.
  Money is a legitimate object of your pursuit: but  it will flow
in upon you  in sufficient measure  without your  making it the
only or even the  prominent thought.   Seek the utmost perfec-
tion of which your art is capable, and let every case you touch 
19
come up to that high standard.   Then place upon your work a
remunerative  value.  Your charges may be threefold  greater
than your neighboring rival—what matter that, if your work be
tenfold more lasting ?   Your profession is not a trade of petty
bargains.  It is knowledge and skill which you sell;  health, per-
manent cure and comfort which your patients buy.   You alone
know the worth of what you give; time only can show them the
full worth of what they receive:  there is here no ground work
for bargaining.  Let your services be of highest excellence; and
see that you suffer  neither yourself nor  others to undervalue
them.   Rest assured that by such a course of uncompromising
independence, if tempered with courtesy and sustained by merit,
your  practice  will,  in the end,  be the larger, yourself more
esteemed and your profession more honored.
   If on the other hand you seek  to gain practice by underbid-
ding your rivals, rather than by the intrinsic worth of your ope-
rations ; if you undertake more cases than your time will allow
you properly to perform ;  if you neglect  the more difficult and
delicate points of your duty, for  fear of insufficient compensa-
tion ; or so engross your hours with the practice of your art, as
to leave you  no  time to  inform yourself in the  study of its
science—no words of praise  from your  lips can  wipe out the
stain of your actions.   To learn  your duty in  its fullest detail
will fail to ennoble you, if from its faithful performance you turn
in any wise astray, led by the love of gain, or the promptings
of a false self interest.  The errors of ignorance are more ex-
cusable than these.
   Hold no secrets in your art.  Freely you have received, freely
give.   A glance at the past history of your profession will show
you what a withering blight this  narrow minded, short sighted
policy has thrown upon its growth, and ought, if you have any
love for your art, to make  you forever eschew it.  If dentistry
is no more than a money making craft; then patent rights and
secret inventions are not out of  place; but if  you claim for it
the rank of a science, you  must act out the generous liberality
of men  of science, and each bring cheerfully his own deposit to
the great storehouse of knowledge.  Be assured that you shall 
20
receive  tenfold for all you give.   Send forth the  treasured
secret;  the  greater its value, the greater the beneficence, and
you will be spared the just reproach of suffering humanity, in
whose cause you profess to have enlisted.   "There is that scat-
tereth and yet increaseth:  there is that withholdeth more than
is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."
  To diligence, faithfulness and generosity, forget  not to add
that spirit of courtesy, which refines the lowliest, and clothes
the highest intellect with a most delicate grace and fascination.
Not the  polite condescension, which insults its object;  nor  the
servile flattery, which degrades the one who offers  it:  not  the
weak  acquiescence of timidity, which  shrinks  from opposing
error; nor yet the hollow form of words and manner, covering
indifference or enmity—not these base counterfeits would I here
commend to you; but that most  genial courtesy of kindliest
influence, that  springs from a heart full of love for the good,
the beautiful, the  true; in which is wide room  for the sympa-
thies of a broad spread humanity.
  In your intercourse  with your professional  brethren, in that
respect  which is  due  to their differences  of opinion, you will
meet  abundant  opportunity for its exercise.   Oneness of aim
does not imply identity of means; nor would a tame monotony
of thought and action be for one moment desirable.  There is
a lethargy more  deadly than strife, and  a discussion whose
kindly flow forbids all anger, if  only  you will extend to  the
sentiments and  feelings of others  that candor and  courteous
forbearance which you would demand for your own.   To expose
a brother's falsehood  is not the best proof of your own truth;
nor to display his weakness, the  highest evidence of your own
strength.
  But, gentlemen, I would  ask you to extend this courtesy  be-
yond  the pale of your profession.   When you come in contact
with the uneducated empiric, it is neither kind nor wise to meet
him in  an angry, a  defiant,  or a contemptuous spirit.  Not
kind,  for  his position  may be his error not  his vice: not wise,
for, without serving your profession in the least, you may make
a life long adversary for yourself.  Strive to gain friends; foes
will spring up without  being sought out. 
21
    If truth be assailed, defend it with a strong heart manfully :
 but see well to it that you do not confound a just anger against
 error with an unholy hatred of the offender.  Remember that
 he who needlessly makes truth disagreeable, commits high trea-
 son against virtue: nor can you do a much more grievous wrong
 to the cause of your science  than to stain her defence with the
 bitterness of personal invective.  It will in no wise excuse you,
 that  you fight only with the weapons of your opponents.   To
 all such  attacks silence is the best reply ;  an upright life their
 completest refutation.  In their secret hearts  all men most ad-
 mire the calm  self sustained courage that can walk unanswering
 amid  calumnies.
   It  may be true that the community, among whom you seek
 to cast your lot, are  the victims of grossest charlatanry; but
 rudely to tell  them  this is  no sure  or pleasant  way  to  do
 them  good.  Go forth strong in the love of your art, and in its
 faithful practice  you shall do more for  yourselves and others
 than by volumes  of abuse.   Entertain for it  that  high admi-
 ration, which it shall be your just  pride  to  win for it from
 others.   Pursue with diligence  the  many branches of science
 which  are essential to the full mastery of its difficulties, and dis-
 charge its duties with an unswerving  integrity which  looks be-
 yond the mere question of present reward.
   But above all seek to engraft upon this  your high professional
 character, the  still  nobler elements of a  high moral character.
 Stamp deep the inner  and the outer life with the unfading mark
 of that signet whose glorious impress is  the "Beauty of Holi-
 ness."   Win for yourselves that name than which there is none
 more honorable or of higher significance—the name of "Christian
 gentleman."   So  blending official, social  and religious duty—
 your  profession shall  acknowledge  you  with pride; the com-
 munity in which you dwell shall honor you; and that true fame,
 which  lies in the just appreciation of  your worth, shall come to
 give you added  happiness and encouragement.  Upon a youth
of temptation resisted, and a vigorous manhood of duty fulfilled,
will follow a serene old age of pleasant memories, cheered by
       4 
22
an undying hope, whose lustre shall brighten when  the glories
of earth grow dim in the waning light of life's setting sun.
   And now,
   Gentlemen  of  the  Graduating Class—We have but to
speak the parting word, the farewell word that must be, and yet
lingers.  May these months of a now severed relation come to
you in after years,  as fruitful in pleasant  recollections, as your
respectful attention  and unvarying courtesy have made them
for us.  May your  life  redeem  its promise of usefulness, and
your success fulfil the hope, which your past zeal and diligence
have justly awakened.   Not in  sad thought at the loosing of
pleasant  ties would  we utter our  farewell: but with words of
good cheer and  encouragement we  usher  you upon  the broad
arena of professional life, and bid you a hearty God-speed. 
             © cs a ® mi a ■? e ©
                           OF THE
BALTIMORE COLLEGE  OE DENTAL SURGERY
      PROM ITS FOUNDATION  1840, TO THE PRESENT TIME.
  1. Robt. Arthur, Md.
  2. R. Covington Mackall, Md.
  3. W. R. Scott, M. D., N. C.
  4. W. W. H. Thackston, Va.
  5. J. B. Savier, Va.
  G. Charles Harris, Md.
  7. John W. Foster, Va.
 8. C. G. Linthicum, Md.
  9. B. R. Robinson, Md.«
 10. Thos. G. Lockerman, Md.
 11. M. S. Robinson, Md.
 12. R. W. Thompson, Md.
 13. Thomas S. Lee, Va.
 14. J. W. McGee, Pa.
 15. W. L. Hollifield,  Pa.
 16. Dr. M. H. Conrad, Va.
 17. J. C. Gilman,Ohio.
 18. CO. Cone, Mass.
 19. E. Hall, M. D., N. C.»
 20. C. Bester,  Ky.
 21. Wilkes Allen, Mass,
 22. Stephen Parsons,  Ga.
 23. E. P. Burroughs, Canada.
 24. R. W. Clarkson, N. J.
 25. Wm. F. Bason, N. Car.
 26. A. Baldwin, M. D., Ala.
 27. J. W. Neill, London.
 28. V. M. Swayze, N. Jersey.
 29. John Locke, Pa.
30. J. Hoban,  D. C.
31. A. T. Cone, M. D., Mass.*
32. J. N.Baird, Va.
33. Jno. C. Bagby, Va.*
34. W. E. Murphy, S. Car.
* Deceased.
35. G. Lucy, M.D., Ala.
36. Thos. Palmer, Mass.
37. Jno. Waylan, Pa.
38. W. W. Davidson, Term.
39. Jno. D. Wimple, N. Car.
40. J. McCulloch, M. D., Dublin,
41. Samuel Rambo, M. D., Md.
42. Daniel Vandenburgh, N. Y.
43. R, W. Armstrong, Md.
44. John McCalla, Pa.
 45. B. A. Kenneday, N. C.
 46. Charles Bond, Md.
47. R. D. Addington, Va.
48. Wm. H.Morgan, Ky.
49. Joshua King, M. D., N. Car.
50. Thomas I. Jones, Ga.
51. Hervey Colburn, M. D., Md.
52. E. W. Mason, Md.
53. Charles A. Barnes, Md.
54. Delwin G. Varney, Mass.
55. J. J. Adair, Ky.
56. Francis Lee, S. C.
57. C. W. Ballard, M. D., N. Y.
 58. P. H.Austen, A. M..M.D.,Md.
59. M. A. Hopkinson, Mass.
60. W. L. Feemster, Tenn.
61. A. A. Blandy, M. D., Ohio.
62. J. H. Fehr, M. D., Ky.*
63. J. F. Warren, Ky.
64. R. R. Sams, S. Car.
65. Albion Martin, Maine.
66. Wm. S. Miller, Va.
67. M. Jerome Cherry, Md.
68. George W. Watkins, Ga. 
24
 69.  Thomas Littig, M. D., Md.    103.
 70.  Thos. D. Thompson, R. I.     104.
 71.  Frederick N. Seabury, R. I.    105.
 72.  R. McLimont, M. D,, London. 106.
 73.  H. B. Young, Ohio.          107.
 74.  L. S. Burridge, M. D., N. Y.  108.
 75.  Orlando H. Wilcox, Md.      109.
 76.  Charles G. Davis, N. H.      110,
 77.  J. D.Smith. M. D., Ga.      111.
 78.  S. H. Dumont, Belgium.      112.
 79.  F. D.Thurmon, Va.         113.
 80.  De La F. Stocking, M. D., La.  114.
 81.  Robt. Johnston, Va.           115.
 82.  Lester Noble, Mass.           116.
 83.  Isaac J. Wetherbee, Mass.     117.
 84.  Rufus K. Chandler,  Va.      118.
 85.  R. T. Bessent, N. C.         119.
 86.  Wm. J. Reese, Ala.           120.
 87.  J. R. Walton, Md.            121.
 88.  George S. Jones, Ky.          122.
 89.  E. H. Howerton, Va.         123.
 90.  James Norih, M. D., Me.     124.
 91.  Jno. A. Johns, M. D., Va.    125.
 92.  E. S. Billips, Ga.             126.
 93.  L. F. McGill, M. D., Md.     127.
 94.  Wm. S. Brown, S. Car.       128.
 95.  Thos. W. Bacot, S. Car.       129.
 96.  R. M. Adair, Ky.             130.
 97.  Ehrick Parmly, N. Y.         131.
 98.  G. Y. Betz, Pa.               132.
 99.  Thos. D. Miller, Eng.         133.
100.  F. P. Abbot, Me.             134.
101.  Warren Johnson, N. Y.       135.
102.  Thos. D. Simonton, Pa.        136.
                                137.
 A. J. Volk, Germany.
 George Mears, Pa.
 Henry McCargo, Va.
 S. A. Sudderth, N. Car.
 Warren Welch, Md.
 Horace E. Chapin, Mass.
 F. E. Cloutier, La.
 Richard H. Finch, Va.
 Henry F.  Stevens, Conn.
 John A. Cobbs, Va.
 A. A. Cleavland, Mass.
 Francis W. Smith, Ga.
 Albert Thornton, Eng.
 Amzi B. Arthur, N. Y.
 Alfred J. Brown, Md.
 Samuel J. Cockerille,  Va.
 Charles R. Coffin, Me.
 George L. Cooke, Mass.
 Mortimer D. French, Mass.
 Decatur P. Gregg, Va.
 George P. Kingsley, Mass.
 Ferd. F. E. Kirchner, Md.
 Samuel A. McDowell, Pa.
 Thomas C. Royce, N. Y.
 A. Judson Sedwick, Va.
 David J. Shelton, Va.
 Martin S. Taylor, Va.
 R. H. Tucker, Bermuda.
 Benj. F. Reilly, M. D., D. C.
 B. F. Arrington, M. D., N. C.
Francis M. Green, M.  D., Miss.
Dwight Tracy, Mass.
Samuel T. Church, M. D., Md.
Hiram N. Wadsworth, D. C.
William C. Stewart, Md. 
  In addition to the principles and l^iceorDental Surgery, the students
will be fully taught the^eneral princ.pl  of Me^[ae and Surgery.  The
Lectures on Anatomy, Surgery and P[ysiol   wiU be amply  illustrated
by models, drawings and preparation stand  by demonstrations and opera-
tions upon the living and dead subjec*  These, with  thg Lectures  upon
Pathology, Therapeutics, and Pra$|ical Medicine, will insure to the dili-
gent and attentive student, an anjrount of information which will ruvty pre.
pare hiin for the treatment of all)Medical and Surgical  cases,   that may
occur in his practice.
  The Infirmary, now located in the College Building,  will  be opened
on the last Monday in October, one month previously  to  the commence-
ment of the Lectures, and will continue open throughout the year, for the
benefit of such students as may wish to remain during the summer.  The
benefits ot this Infirmary are now so well known  and  appreciated  by  the
citizens of Baltimore as to insure a full supply of cases for practice in both
the Operative and Mechanical Departments.   The operations in  the  In-
firmary will be performed by the students, under the personal direction of
the Professors in charge.  A daily and punctual  attendance will be  exact-
ed.
   Candidates for the "Examination for Degrees,"  must  have  attended
two full courses of Lectures.  Certificate of four years Dental Practice, or
of one course in some reputable Dental or Medical College, will be receiv-
ed as equivalent to the first  course.
  The Lectures will commence on the first Monday in  November,  and
close  the  first of March.   The Infirmary,  Mechanical and  Dissecting
Rooms, will open on the first Monday in October.
  Tickets for the Course,   $110.   Dissecting Ticket,  (optional,)  $10.
Diploma Fee, 030. Matriculation Fee, $5.
   Rooms and board may be'obtained at from $2 50 to  -5>4 00 per week.
  Text Books.  Harris' Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery, 5th
Edition; Bond's Dental Medicine, 2nd Edition ; Handy's Anatomy; Car-
penter's  Physiology;  Mutter's Liston's  Surgery ;  Jourdain's  Surgical
Diseases of the Mouth ;  Mitchell's or Dunglison's Therapeutics and Ma-
teria Medica; Fowne's, Graham's or Turner's Chemistry;  Wood's or
Watson's Practice of Medicine.
                                        P. H.AUSTEN, Dean,
                                233 West Lombard  street, Baltimore.
• 
)
%