ADDRESS 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DENTAL SCIENCE, 
AT ITS 
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING, 
HELD IN 
BOSTON, NOVEMBER 11, 1891. 
BY 
GEORGE S. ALLAN, D.D.S., 
of New York. 
BOSTON: 
Press of Rockwell and Churchill. 
1892. 248 Boylston St., Boston, Nov. 16, 1891. 
George S. Allan, D.D.S.,y/ West 37th St., New York: 
My dear Doctor : I have the pleasure to inform you that at the twenty- 
fourth annual meeting of the American Academy of Dental Science, held in 
Boston, Nov. 11, 1891, it was unanimously 
Resolved, That the thanks of the Academy be presented to Dr. Allan for his 
very able and instructive address, and that a copy be requested for publication 
and for preservation among the records of the Academy. 
Sincerely hoping that you will comply with this request, 
I am very truly yours, 
E. N. HARRIS, 
Corresponding Secretary. 
51 West 37TH St., New York, Feb. 8, 1892. 
My dear Doctor : Permit me to reply to your kind note of November 16, 
and acknowledge the compliment contained therein, and to thank your society 
for their over-appreciation of my efforts in their behalf, as well as for their 
pleasant way of showing the same. 
I trust the Academy will forgive me for my long delay in forwarding my ad- 
dress for publication. I hoped to have revised and rewritten it, but have been 
forced to give up the idea by the pressure of other duties and none too much 
strength. 
The subject I had the honor of presenting to you ought to have been handled 
by abler hands than mine, for it appears to me that the future welfare of our 
calling depends much on the way in which they may receive and act upon it. Of 
course, all I claim is to have turned a side-light on a subject with which we are 
all only too familiar. 
In the hope that good may come from it, I cheerfully accede to your request 
for a copy of my address for publication, and herewith transmit a copy for that 
purpose. 
Thanking you personally for your kindness and forbearance, and with best 
wishes for the continued prosperity and usefulness of the American Academy of 
Dental Science, 
I am very truly yours, 
Dr. E. N. Harris, Corresponding Secretary American Academy Dental 
Science. 
GEO. S. ALLAN. ADDRESS. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the American Academy of Dental 
In responding to the kind invitation to be present with you this evening 
and take a part in your annual festivities, I wish first to congratulate you 
on the many evidences of strong vitality and growth I see in your society; 
and, second, to thank you for the compliment you have extended to me. 
Boston has treated me so kindly and well these many years that I feel 
much at home with you, and rejoice at the opportunity, under such pleas- 
ant auspices, of again meeting so many old friends and in the hope of 
making some new ones. 
Science 
But it has been a puzzle to know what to write about. Though this is 
a dental meeting, the conditions are such as not to warrant a purely dental 
subject. You have thrown off your yoke in coming here this evening, and, 
like school-boys on a lark, expect to be entertained, or at least, want to be. 
But I cannot tell stories even moderately well, and never could crack a 
joke. Hence my dilemma. 
But it occurred to me I might take a middle course, or rather a side 
issue, and set you thinking on one of the topics of the day and its bear- 
ings on our specialty, and so win my way to your good graces and my 
dinner at the same time. This I will try to do. Bear with me patiently, 
and remember this is something of a maiden effort in this direction. 
In the current literature of the day, magazines, newspapers, etc., to say 
nothing about the more weighty matter found in book form, nothing is 
more common than to see allusions to the doctrine of evolution, and they 
are mostly in a way to indicate that the reading and thinking public are more 
or less familiar with its meaning; in fact, have incorporated it with their 
every-day knowledge of facts and principles. In ordinary conversation, the 
technical terms pertaining to the doctrine are frequent and well understood. 4 
In truth, a vast literature on the subject has sprung up in these modern 
days, and it is constantly increasing in volume and power. The meaning 
of it all is that a great law of nature has been brought to light and is 
rapidly being unfolded to the vision of all, and that it is so far-reaching in 
its applications and reveals so many of the hitherto considered secrets of 
nature, telling us not only of the how of things, but of the necessity that 
has always existed that things must be done in just such a manner, that it 
looks as if we had at last grasped a great fundamental law of the universe, 
one that was in force from the beginning, and that if any law could be 
said to have antedated another law, this was the one that was first set in 
motion. There is no question but that it has taken a tremendous hold of 
the human intellect, that men think of it constantly, and use it more and 
more frequently in their efforts to solve the secrets of the world’s progress 
and growth; and it is certain their judgment as to its value has not been 
misplaced, and so it comes about that men, women, and children think and 
talk of evolution. 
This is neither the time nor place to go into any extended analysis of the 
doctrine in general. That many imperfectly understand its significance 
and misinterpret its meaning is true enough; but this holds true of the 
first attempts to outline all newly discovered laws or truths. Time and 
thought, as a rule, correct all such errors. The law has come to stay, and 
so universally has it been accepted, and so completely has it overcome 
opposition, that one now hears but little said against it. The wonder is 
that it has obtained so strong a footing in so short a time. No other 
great law or theory can claim so much. 
But I must come to my text and its application, and will take a short 
cut. Applying this doctrine to man, the statement is made that he is a 
resultant of two factors, powers, or agencies, no one term quite fills the 
bill, viz., heredity and environment; and, the more one turns this pres- 
entation of the case over in his mind, the more strongly does its truth appeal 
to his judgment and reason. One curious phase of the few criticisms that 
have been made against it is the willingness of its opponents to concede 
its application in the case of domestic animals and plants, denying, at the 
same time, its force when applied to the human race. I never appreciated 
the comical side of this position so much as I did once when I told a lady 
that, as a matter of fact, she was an animal. She indignantly denied my 
assertion, and took great offence. Ido not look, though, for any of you to 
question the statement. 5 
In order, however, to give point to my final argument, you will permit 
me, in an illustration or so, to point out the drift of my thoughts. 
First let me say that the law holds good for all the parts that go to 
make the individual. Mental, moral, and physical traits, all are subject 
to its controlling power. 
A man born with a tendency to consumption is commonly considered a 
fated man. His days are said to be numbered, and his friends and relations 
have much compassion for him. But science says no. He may yet live his 
full number of days if he will use good judgment and change his living- 
place and habits, and do it in time; for it is certain that unless he exposes 
himself to the contagion of consumption, and takes into his system the spe- 
cific germ that induces the disease, he will escape and live as others did. 
He has not inherited the disease itself, only a condition of the system 
which makes him susceptible to it. Somehow, in a way we cannot explain, 
the bacillus tuberculosis finds a proper and good soil, and flourishes in 
the lungs and other organs of some, whereas it would die outright or be 
smothered in another’s. So he must change his environments and go 
where the germ is not found, and where the conditions of life are such as 
to strengthen the system in its natural efforts to overcome its effects, and 
destroy them in case any have obtained a lodgement in his system. So 
the man changes his environments and lives his natural length of days. 
But, if this is a true statement, so also is the opposite, viz.: Place a 
non-susceptible person in an atmosphere charged with tuberculous germs 
and let him breathe it constantly, and, sooner or later, they will take root 
and flourish. They will not only do this, but they will make a suitable soil 
and transmit this latter to their descendants. 
But the law holds as good for moral and mental conditions and attributes. 
Place the intellectual man where he can neither meet those who will stimu- 
late his mental faculties, obtain free access to books, or have the time 
and opportunity for thought, and his powers will soon begin to fail; and 
likewise the man of low intelligence and poor mental capacities taken 
from his ancestors, if placed where such as he has will be stimulated to 
new growth cultivated, in fact may be made to develop wonderfully, 
and a new and better man made to grow out of the old one, and he will 
transmit to his descendants the newly acquired and better tendencies. The 
truth is the law is a fundamental law of life and matter —is all-powerful 
and constantly operative. Man by his will-power and reason can modify 
its action, diminish or increase its power, but cannot change its nature; 6 
and just here it is that man’s supremacy over all other created things is 
most apparent. 
Man can regulate, change, or alter his surroundings, and with them 
change his course and destiny, and—what is of even greater importance 
change the destiny and course of his descendants. To know how true this 
last statement is, turn to your books or inquire of those who have made it 
a study, and find the answer as to how hereditary traits and characteristics 
are developed and become fixed, and as to their all-powerful influence on 
the individual. If any of you have not thought of this, or thought of it but 
little, I would most earnestly commend the subject to you. Nothing is 
more powerful than this same heredity, whether it be physical, mental, 
or moral in its nature ; nothing more marvellous than the manner in which 
it is acquired, grows, and maintains its influence. A physician once said 
to me, “It is hard to kill a man who comes from a long-lived race,” and 
he spoke the truth; and just as true is it that as a rule the man of strong 
mental grasp and power, and the man whose moral instincts are a gift from 
his parents’ blood, will fight gallantly against adverse conditions, and will be 
an intellectual or a moral man, or both, to the end. Well may we believe, 
then, that heredity and environments are the twin-brothers that rule, for 
weal or for woe, the destinies of all. 
But what has all this to do with our specialty of dentistry? Let us see. 
But first let me say that the law is cumulative in its action, and applies 
with equal power to masses and numbers when viewed as units. 
Whence comes dentistry, and where was its birthplace ? Ido not know. 
Some might say that it came from nowhere and never was born, but, like 
Topsy, it “ grew ” only. But I think differently. Ideas, principles, and 
laws may be said to have always existed, and wait only on discovery to re- 
veal themselves; but their transmutation into callings for man’s edification, 
growth, or enjoyment is another affair. Necessity has truly been said to 
be the mother of invention, but what is invention but a controlling and 
directing of matter and law into new channels and for new purposes? 
Every invention is a new birth, and so is every calling, only they do not 
come into life so suddenly. The time element has far more to do with 
them. They come, as the rivers and streams come, from little beginnings, 
and from sources far distant and far separated from one another. Dentistry 
may be said to have been born of human distress and pain, and conceived 
by human intelligence and ingenuity. The new-born, for many years and 
ages, was insignificant in size and appearance, and attracted no attention 7 
so little that its presence among us passed unnoticed, and we have only 
known that it lived since it arrived at maturity. A like statement can be 
made of medicine in general, but I doubt if any of you can much extend 
the list. 
Without going into the question of the relations of dentistry to medicine 
in general in any detailed manner, it may not be amiss to emphasize 
the above statement of their common origin and heritage, and show how, 
in the nature of things, it could not be otherwise. lam one of those who 
believe in claiming everything for my profession that belongs to it, and see 
no reason why I should abate my demands in the slightest on any senti- 
mental considerations. But, to be frank, most of this discussion as to our 
proper position has seemed to me to be very foolish and absurd. It is totally 
uncalled-for and unwarranted by the facts as we find them. In a late 
periodical I find this quotation from a speech by Professor W. D. Miller, 
of Berlin ; “At the same time, physicians as well as dentists recognize the 
fact that medicine rests upon common ground with dentistry, and it would be 
as impossible to separate medicine from dentistry as to separate the human 
mouth from the alimentary tract.” This is a statement the strength and 
truth of which few of you, I think, will care to question. 
My belief is that the heredity parentage argument is, in itself, un- 
answerable. Applying this argument to the two professions, calling them 
two simply for the sake of argument, and we find that they differ simply 
in degree and in degree only. A part of the body fails in some way to do 
its work. It shows weakness or eccentricity in its character or action, and 
straightway man sets to work to discover the cause and apply a remedy. 
Grouping all these abnormal conditions and their treatment together, and 
we have the science of medicine. Separating any one part from the whole, 
and we have a specialty. It is probably true that all specialties have had 
an independent origin. The practice of surgery and that of the oculist 
certainly did, but as they grew they sought and found their common home. 
The same is true of dentistry; but if it has failed to seek its fountain-head 
and drink freely of its waters, it is because of errors in judgment and 
comprehension on the part of those who practise it, or more likely because 
it is bulky and so largely dependent on the mechanic arts. The dental 
materia medica is, indeed, limited, but not more so than it is in the 
practice of the orthopedist or the oculist. By the term bulky I mean the 
number of those engaged in its practice. 
But the point I wish to impress on your minds, which I desire you to 8 
take home with you and think over, and which really was the impelling 
motive that prompted me to appear before you, remains to be presented. 
The two cardinal doctrines of the theory of evolution as it relates to life 
I stated to you as being those of heredity and environments. They indeed 
do not cover the whole ground, but they alone are the ones I wish, in my 
short time, to refer to. Heredity I have touched upon: now I would do 
the same as regards environments. 
Individuals, classes, nations, are beset by, controlled, fashioned, by their 
environments. The law is far-reaching in its effects, and holds in its grasp 
the destinies of all. Few there are who rightly measure its power and 
influence. It takes each one of you gentlemen in hand, and moulds and 
fashions you as a potter does his clay, but it works so quietly and gradu- 
ally that you are mostly off your guard, and forget your power and duty in 
controlling your own destinies by changing and directing your personal 
environments. Will-power and strength of character it is that can do this, 
controlled and guided by moral and intellectual aims and ambitions; and 
sad indeed is the thought how largely these factors are hereditary in their 
nature. 
But as I said just now in regard to this law, that which holds good of 
individuals holds equally good when applied to aggregations of individuals, 
such as those which go to make up callings or communities ; and hence it is 
that we, as dentists, a class or body of men having a common path and 
purpose in life, are called on to study this law, to examine its bearings on 
our professional life and position, and see what we can do as a class to 
better our common lot. Our heredity we cannot change : our environ- 
ments we may and ought to. 
It seems quite probable to me that were it not for the fact that the dear 
public call us doctors, natural instinct and common sense classifying us as 
such, we occupying a negative rather than a positive position, it would be 
difficult to give us a local habitation and place of rest amongst the world’s 
workers. We have some of the characteristics of a profession, some of 
the artisan, and we take kindly to the tradesman and his ways, and alto- 
gether we make up a curious compound —so curious that the individual, 
following his tastes and inclinations, if he has the ability can locate himself 
almost where he will, and he will still be recognized as one of us and 
as being in good standing; and most unfortunate is it that individual 
preferences and tastes control to a great extent. As the stream will 
not rise higher than its source, so it is that the calling will not demand 9 
a place higher than the tastes and ambitions of the units that compose 
it. Many there are who wish to occupy a more commanding and assured 
position, but are held back by the traditions, the teachings, and the 
“ vis inertia. ” of the mass to which they belong. But I firmly believe 
that the dawn of a better day is at hand, and that the force of cir- 
cumstances alone will drive us to assert ourselves when other and more 
natural means may fail. Like the streams from the same fountain-head, 
the greater and the lesser, when united in a common bed, will flow 
together and mingle their waters in a common whole. We cannot take 
a course side by side with the mother-stream of medicine and keep our- 
selves afloat, and so, willy-nilly, we must follow our destiny. 
But some will say that, if this must be, why trouble ourselves about the 
matter? Why not close our eyes and let the stream carry us wheresoever 
it will? We are bound to come out right, anyway. So I would say, were it 
not for one thing. The streams are not yet united, and are kept from so 
doing by artificial restraints and obstructions, and a constant effort is being 
made by well-intentioned men to force our little stream to one side and mark 
out for it an independent course and channel. Time, under the control- 
ling power of natural law, will surely, in the end, prevent this, but long 
delays may ensue, and the proper growth and dignity of our calling suffer 
thereby; so it is wise for us to study the situation, and see if we cannot 
hasten the day when our position will be assured, and our title cease to 
convey a false impression. 
Hence it is that I bring forcibly to your notice, and would compel your 
attention to, the power of environments in shaping our destiny, and of our 
ability to order them for our common good. 
Just here it would seem as though I might close and let the suggestion 
alone, working on your minds, do its work, so clearly and distinctly must 
it point out the path we should pursue. What we want to be we surely 
can be, and only our own obstinacy and perverseness can delay the full 
fruition of our desires. 
But I will complete my picture, taking it for granted that none of you 
want to occupy a lower position among the occupations of the world than 
is necessary, any more than you would willingly take a lower social 
one, and that you all know that the two positions are mutually related to, 
and dependent in a great measure on, each other. I will tell you, in as 
few words as possible, what I think we ought to do, and do at once and 
with all our might. We must seek for, and rest not till we obtain, 10 
recognition as being doctors; and to do that we must be doctors not only 
in name, but in fact. The diploma must tell no lie, and should not 
convey a partial truth. 
The environments we should seek, then, are those which stand 
ready at hand; and there is no danger of our seeking in vain. The com- 
munity will not estimate us beyond our own valuation. We should, then, 
place our valuation high, and go where we belong. The community just 
now, I fancy, only gives us the title of doctors. They do not think of us 
as being genuine except in part, and communities generally estimate men 
and callings about right. 
The degree of M.D. and how funny that of D.D.S. or M.D.S. sounds in 
the light of facts and our desires ! means a great deal. Maybe it means 
too much for us, and that there is the trouble, or one trouble; but it does 
not mean more than it ought to. It means, first, a liberal education; it 
means that money-making is secondary to the calls of humanity, and that 
the laws that govern barter and sale, though legally just, are professionally 
wrong, in that they make property rights of the means of prolonging life 
and alleviating human suffering. In these respects its code of ethics is 
superior to those under which the merchant or artisan pursues his calling. 
The true physician does not sell things, but knowledge, skill, and 
judgment. 
It has been said that if a man cannot harvest the fruits of invention he 
will not invent, but will give his time and attention to more lucrative work. 
The history of medicine and surgery, however, disproves this. No class of 
men in the world invent more than doctors. Their ambition to excel and 
make a name is great, and they get their reward for what they do in in- 
creased reputation and honor. They also get their reward in dollars and 
cents, too; for the one produces the other. 
It is worth noting that those who take the non-professional or art view 
of our specialty would, in a great measure, discard a code of ethics en- 
tirely “ Facilis descensus Averni.” They would not only accept the 
right to patent and permit the dentists to derive a profit from patents, but 
would open wide the doors to the trade spirit and grant the privilege to 
advertise at will, and so break down all the barriers that lie between the 
doctor and the merchant, or artisan. All the arguments used for the one 
might apply very equally to all. It is well to keep in mind the true mean- 
ing of the non-professional idea and its sequences. 
Sitting in a corner one evening at a dental meeting, I asked myself the 11 
question, How many of those present make anything, or want to make 
anything, out of patients ? I could not single out one ; and to the credit 
and glory of our calling the number is few indeed, and daily diminishing, 
of those who would add to their income in this questionable manner. The 
many, though, hear the cry of the few, but have not the courage to cast 
them out. 
I hold, then, that the degrees of D.D.S. or M.D.S. are misleading and 
obstructive. The dentist should be an M.D. His studies and training 
should be the same. Only in this way can he obtain a title clear and un- 
questioned, and take his proper place amongst the world’s workers. Only 
in this way can he attain his just ambitions and longings. 
We know our heredity. What are our environments? If we are true 
to ourselves and true to our profession, we shall seek in the higher and 
purer atmosphere just within our reach, a home and a life fitted to make us 
bigger and better men, and our brothers and the public will extend to us 
a hearty welcome. 
It may be advisable to say a word or so in relation to the proper method 
to adopt to carry out the suggestions incorporated in this paper; for I 
would not have you think that this most important part of my subject had 
been overlooked, or that I had deemed it of less importance than the 
idea itself. This is a practical age, and the man who is wholly vision- 
ary must take a back seat, and let other and more wide-awake men take 
charge of the car of progress. If, however, we can couple the vision of 
the future with the movement of the day, our time will not have been 
wasted. 
Holding fully as I do to the statement of fact that dentistry is simply a 
specialty of medicine and cannot be divorced from it, and that in no case 
can the part be made greater than the whole, but that the more closely 
the part is cemented to or incorporated into the body of the whole, so 
much greater will be its strength and power, for it must take both from the 
parent body, I see just as plainly as any of you the peculiar conditions 
with which we are surrounded, and which would seem to imply that we 
might, could, would, or ought to be a body separate and distinct by our- 
selves. I see, as you do, that we need a special and distinct training, 
that a large or exhaustive study of anatomy, physiology, or therapeutics is 
not needed to prepare the dentist for his work, and prepare him fairly well 
too. I know that our work is largely mechanical, demanding a knowledge 
of instruments, and tools, and the artisan’s skill and touch, and that so 12 
great is the demand for our services that in numbers we approximate, if 
we do not equal, those who devote themselves to the general practice of 
medicine, I know and see all this, and give them all due weight; but 
I say, when all is granted and all summed up and allowed, the essential 
fact remains unaltered, unaffected, and just as immovable as ever. Our 
specialty is a specialty only, and our best good demands that we take 
our proper position in the body we belong to. 
But I must hasten to a close and answer the questions, How are our special 
wants to be met when the D.D.S., the D.M.D., etc., are dropped and the 
simple M.D. takes their place? How are we to avoid taking in study and 
preparation the great mass the doctor needs and we do not need ? and, 
further, how are we to obtain the special training that our calling demands 
and must have to fit us for the life before us ? 
It is manifestly unreasonable to ask the student preparing to practise as 
a dentist to take a full course in medicine and then a special one in den- 
tistry. Few indeed could devote either the money or the time to carry 
out such a plan, and most of those who could would object on the ground 
that it was not necessary; and I fully believe that such a plan never could 
be carried out. What can be done, and successfully too, is this : Let the 
dental student take so much of the essential and rudimentary medical 
course as may be requisite, and later on take his special course. In all 
our great universities this plan and principle is adopted, and the student is 
thus enabled to fit himself for his special work and obtain full value 
received for the time given to fitting himself for his life’s work. At some 
place half-way or thereabout the course of study becomes elective, and the 
student is permitted to select his studies with special reference to his future 
life, or rather choose that line of studies that has been marked out for 
that purpose. lam satisfied that few objections of value or weight can be 
urged against the plan, and that our medical brothers stand ready and 
willing to extend a helping hand in carrying it out.