ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
llassiaclutsietts JJeutal 
AT IT8 
Fifth Annual Meeting, 1869. 
BY DR. A. A. COOK. 
BOSTON : 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
1869. ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
§wtal Jfowtg, 
AT ITS 
Fifth Annual Meeting, 1869. 
BY 30 B. A. A. (TOOK. 
BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
1869. ADDRESS. 
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Massachusetts 
Dental Society: 
Standing in such presence, one may well implore some 
power above us. 
n Some Power guide my pen, 
While I draw a man 
On earth devoted ” to the teeth. 
Such, then, is the text; and the coming man of the dental 
profession shall be the theme. 
Profession is the word used; for I take it, that ours is no 
longer to be considered merely a calling. It has attained 
superior dignity, and should be numbered among the learned 
professions. 
“A man on earth devoted to teeth.” Of course a dentist 
should be a man; in more senses than one; in all things a 
man. He should be something more than the platonic type, 
that is, a biped without feathers, and minus teeth. Of course 
he will have eyes as a man, ears as a man, passions as a 
man, blood as a man, intellect as a man, and all other char- 
acteristics of the genus homo. 
I doubt that woman can hope to excel in the practice of 
the dental art; and yet I am told that she emulates those 
who are considered the best of practitioners. When I say 
man, then let it be understood that it is conceded that effemi- 
nate masculinity shall stand on a par with masculine effemi- 
nacy. Gallantry demands, and the profession should accede, 
that, other things being equal, she shall not be proscribed. 
It may be doubted whether the taste of the fair ones will to 
any extent lead them to such practice. The dentist should 4 
be a man of nerve, as he is a man of blood, in more senses 
than one. Woman’s finer nature shrinks from such work as 
the dentist must do at times, though, perchance, there be 
exceptions; and, perchance, there shall be some rivalry of 
the sexes in the dental line, as there now is in the medical 
world. If this shall be, as the suffrage question seems to 
foreshadow a good deal, let it come. Woman should stand 
upon her merits here, as in all things; and if she can do as 
good a thing in the laboratory, or over the dental chair as 
her bosom lord, give her a chance, and bid her god-speed, 
so that she does good work. A woman devoted to teeth 
may yet be no novelty. Possibly the profession will suffer 
no detriment if the thing shall become common. Let her 
follow her own bent and taste, as she has such right. In 
this democratic age, people will have their choice in matters 
of teeth, as in a thousand other things; and if the patient 
prefer the soft and gentle manipulation of the fair one to 
the rough treatment of the unfeeling practitioner, it must be 
endured as of the inevitable. It has been said, “ The learned 
professions have their masculine and feminine aspects. In 
medicine, there is a broad and well-marked department, 
where the feminine qualities of patience, sympathy, tender- 
ness, tact, perception, nicety of touch and manipulation, ad- 
ministrative care and sensibility, can render admirable ser- 
vice,— departments which fairly belong to women.” 
Something more than these qualities is needed to make 
the dentist. There must be something superadded. Cour- 
age that dares the heroic strength of arm and nerve, nicety 
of mechanical manipulation, power of physical endurance,— 
these are not non-essentials in the department. Minerva 
may be made of lips of tenderness and love, and have all 
the distinctive qualities of her finer nature, and yet be want- 
ing in essentials. Her aesthetic taste, her gentleness, her 
tenderness, might one and all be of value. It were well our 5 
profession manifested more such qualities. The question is, 
does her nature, all feminine as is the supposed case, qualify 
her to amputate a limb, or to extract a molar; or will that, 
or any other feminine quality, enable her to restore a tooth 
to soundness, to its due form, and to golden beauty ? Can 
she be expected to do these things as well as a Plato might ? 
All platonists cannot hope to become experts in dental 
specialty. Many who have started in this direction have 
abandoned their once choice for some other calling better 
adapted to their capabilities. Others there are who would 
do well by doing likewise. 
Equal rights to equal fitness, surely. There should be 
adaptation of the person to the profession, whatever be the 
nationality or the sex. Something of taste and tact; some- 
thing of skill, and sense, and strength, of natural aptness, is 
essential to become an expert in the dental profession. I 
know of no one word that expresses the one essential thing 
to the success of the dentist better than the word gumption. 
Defining it, I should say it means in practice a quick percep- 
tion — I had almost said intuitive — of the nature of the 
case, comprehending the thing to be done, as well as the 
best method of doing the best thing, with skill and daring 
to do it. As a quality, it is innate, if it exist at all. Have 
you never seen men learned, intelligent, respectable in the 
different professions, who were lacking in this grace? They 
have not been able to meet the demands upon them for the 
want of gumption. One must have the root of the matter 
in him, or he might about as well give up before he start. 
The greatest of all is gumption. And the kind needed is 
different from that required to knead bread, or to deal out 
pills aright, or to lend a hand in obstetric practice. A differ- 
ent sort of skill is required to deliver a venomed statig, or to 
restore to due form the carious tooth with solid burnished 
gold. 6 
The dentist ought to be a scientist; and the coming man 
will be, as some are. There is a sense in which all science 
is one, as truth is one; and there can be no conflict of scien- 
tific truth. What is true in one department will not be at 
variance with aught in another; and if diversify appear, such 
opposition is only in the seeming. There can be no real 
contrariety. Some thought and study may be requisite to 
arrive at the true, and distinguish it from ‘ science falsely 
so called.’ Of false science beware. It is a misnomer to call 
aught science that is false and uncertain; and the same is 
true in calling one a man of science who is ignorant of the 
first principles of his calling, or of his profession. A mere 
smattering of knowledge in a particular profession does not 
make the scientific man; and yet even thus much is better 
than has been at times. To be a scientific dentist, what is 
it ? It at least embraces a knowledge of that department 
of science that appertains to dentistry, and to its proper 
practice. It may not include a general knowledge of uni- 
versal science. Perchance one may be a little at fault in 
general intelligence, and still be a scientific dentist, perfectly 
at homo in his special department. First of all, he should 
seek to become an expert, to excel in his chosen specialty; 
and as means to this end, he should know all, if pos- 
sible, that comes within the scope of dental science. At 
least, he ought to push things to the utmost bounds of the 
known, the already discovered, and come to comprehend 
there is something beyond. He ought to be able to call 
things by their right names; to understand dental nomencla- 
ture so far as there is such; and it would be well, in the 
absence of the word needed at times, he should be able to 
coin the right one. The profession has not conceded to any 
one the right to do its verbal coining. Our nomenclature 
is felt to be imperfect; but, imperfect as it is, our scientific 
man should know the sense of the word he uses, if so be he 7 
be deficient in the sense and meaning that others attach to 
it, using the same word. He need not seek to perfect him- 
self in dental nomenclature merely to astonish his patrons 
with the right use even of learned words of high seeming, 
calculated to astonish, if not captivate, the patron, or (pro- 
fessionally speaking) the patient. Commonly, it is better to 
say bone than dentine; nerve than dental pulp; better say 
teeth than odontoligia. Better use terms surely understood 
alike by speaker and hearer than doubtful ones of thunder- 
ing sound, and learned length, and pompous egotism. 
Our man should be able to dissect a tooth, as well as to 
name, and give its locality from its name. He ought to be 
able to tell something of its development; something of its 
elements of structure; something of its connection with the 
nervous system, as well as of its relations to the organism in 
general; something of its worth for incision or for mastica- 
tion, preparing nutriment for digestion, and thus conducing to 
the healthful development of the whole man. 
If he be unable to define the exact lines that distinguish 
and divide between dental and medical science, let him pass 
to the regions beyond. He shall be none the less a dentist; 
for all he shall come to know of medicine. If an M. D., be 
supplemented by D. D. S., or the order be reversed and the 
medical doctorate be joined to the dental, there certainly 
should be more of science in the man, and certainly none the 
less of a scientific practitioner and intelligent and skilful 
operator; none the less of art because of more science. He 
should ordinarily confine himself to the one in his practice, and 
not be dabbling in pills when dentals are his calling. And 
yet there are cases requiring a cathartic rather than the 
forceps; and he ought to have “ Wisdom profitable to 
direct.” 
With a little dental science, the physician might at times 
find the source of disease, or of some ails in some diseased 8 
dental; and perchance locate facial or other neuralgic pains 
in some tooth as the troubler. So perchance the dentist 
will be greatly benefited as his knowledge shall extend to 
the pathology of disease in general. 
These two branches of science intertwine and commingle; 
so much so, that the studies and books of the one may well 
be and are the studies and authority of the other to a great 
extent. Anatomy, special and comparative, physiology, pa- 
thology, and whatever other ology appertains to “ the house 
I live in,” — all have relation and appertain to the science 
of health, if not to each alike to the same extent. A double 
diploma might be desirable, if one could be assured that a 
single one was always worthily granted, and was not beyond 
the real merit of such as flaunt it. A charlatan is but a 
charlatan, nothing more, though you cram his pocket with 
diplomas instead of pills. An ass is but a Jack, though he 
put on a lion’s skin. 
I shall not be misunderstood. I believe in diplomas. It 
may be every worthy practitioner should have one. What is 
to be reprobated is, that you cannot distinguish between the 
good and the vile, the scientific and the charlatan, from 
the fact one has his diploma duly authenticated. One with 
little or no science, skill or general knowledge cannot be 
made a scientific practitioner, though he flaunt triple diplo- 
mas. Granted, that the presumption should always be on 
the side of the diploma; that is, that it was worthily bestowed 
upon a worthy man, a ripe scholar, a scientist at least in 
his specialty; yet such are the facts known and read of all 
men, or may be, that one’s faith is shaken in the abstract 
virtue of a diploma. We had rather know the virtue is in 
the man, back of his parchment; that “ he is science,” to 
use a cant phrase, independent of the voucher or indorser 
on the face or back of the parchment. Undervalue the 
diploma ? Not at all ! The complaint is, that it is too care- 9 
lessly and indiscriminately bestowed. The standard is 
brought down to the stature or level of the man; and the 
man is not exalted to the height he should be because of this. 
The result is a double disparagement, involving the diploma 
and the man as much or more. Such granting of diploma is 
derogatory to science and detrimental to the profession. 
There should be emblazoned in every dental college for the 
guidance of the faculty in conferring the diploma, “ See 
that you inflict no detriment to the republic,” or to the pro- 
fession, or to the individual. Lay hands suddenly on no 
man. Do not consecrate a novice ! 
Of course no body of men do this. And yet, strange to 
say, the thing is done at times, and cases do come under 
observation. 
The diploma should ever be a warrant to the public of 
scientific knowledge at least, if not of professional skill. It 
ought to assure a tolerable practitioner, if not an expert, in 
practice and manipulation. Of course there will be degrees 
of excellence among the excellent. There may be excellence 
without the diploma as there may be bad and malpractice 
with it. Possibly he who shall come the nearest to our ideal 
of what a dentist should be may in fact be never honored 
by the degree. And yet such an one should have it, if it be 
of worth at all, that he may honor the thing and magnify his 
profession. One might honor the thing more than its be 
stowment would honor him. All the worthy should have it 
without discrimination of nationality or of sex. All honor 
to Harvard that can give a diploma to one of Afric’s hue; 
and shame on any dental college that closes its doors to one 
because of ebon skin. It was a little amusing to hear a student 
of a dental school seeking a diploma, after having been long 
enough in practice to secure the boon by taking one course 
of lectures, say that he did not expect the course would make 
hint any the better practitioner; but then he was glad he had 10 
entered as he had had the conceit all taken out of him, and this 
too not half through the course. This conceit of his that lie 
was minus conceit seemed laughable. Perhaps the full course 
finished the good work, but half through it did seem there was 
a moiety left. If indeed such was always the sure result of 
taking a course of lectures, and of securing the diploma, it 
were well that none should neglect. And this may be the 
tendency, as it should be. It is possible, however, that the 
conceited matriculant may become the more inflated because 
of his parchment, and so become disgusting with his airs. 
“ Oh, that some Power the gift would, ” etc. 
One trait of our ideal is that of modest worth. It is a 
gem of the first water. Without it, a diploma may be “ As a 
jewel of gold in a swine’s snout.” It becomes a nuisance 
when used to cover ignorance, or doubtful practice; or to 
protect from the consequences of malpractice; or to give 
one respectability as a man or as a practitioner who has 
none in himself. 
No one should think of entering the dental profession who 
cannot do it con amove; or at least has not a sufficient 
taste for it as to be likely to call it — so have I seen written 
— “My Beloved Profession.” If his whole heart is not 
in it at first, he should have a more than leaning towards 
it. This is the more excellent way to commence, and the 
sure way to eminence. Not merely as a means to a living, 
or for lucre’s sake should he take upon him the high 
honor of being a dentist. He ought to be impressed with 
the sense of the dignity of the profession, and of the 
worth of a tooth. He will hardly magnify his calling, honor 
himself, or advance the profession as he might and should 
do, if there be in him naught but what smacks of the personal 
and ends in ego. 
It is his to alienate human suffering; to diminish the 11 
number of the ills flesh is heir to; rather to prevent them, as 
well as guard humanity against suffering, at least in the line 
of his profession. And this is the high mission of dental 
science. Cure is well enough, and is to be sought after in 
the use of any specific that shall restore the sick man. Pre- 
vention, however, is better. The aim of medical science 
should bp the prevention of disease; keeping the human 
organism as a whole in a normal, healthful condition; pro- 
viding for such development of the physique as shall secure 
health, strength and longevity, — thus diminishing the totality 
of misery, and by so much and more adding to the sum of 
weal. The medical student, or practitioner has a limited 
and unworthy view of his calling whose only aim and prac- 
tice is to cure the sick. His true mission and high calling 
is first of all to prevent the sickness, to have a healthful 
child at birth, and to keep in normal condition. He should 
be something more than a restorer of breaches, or a repairer 
of places to dwell in. It is well to build the walls, when 
once down from external foes or internal strife. It is better 
to preserve the citadel from attack, and keep the precious 
stones in position, each in beauty and strength. Shame on 
the man whose only aim is to remedy ruin accomplished 
rather than to prevent desolation. “ An ounce of preven- 
tion is worth a pound of cure.” No gold can equal in 
worth, or substitute in value, the enamel and dentine of a 
priceless tooth. Much as the burnished gold, found often in 
these days in the dental arch of fortunate, or rather w/ifortu- 
nate patients, is admired as work of all praise, shining as so 
much jewelry, in better condition, service, and fineness than 
the bogus stuff, still one can but feel to say: What a pity! 
And this last may well predominate over all praise the fill- 
ing may merit. Gazing at the golden tooth, one hardly 
knows which the more to admire, the properties of the metal, 
or the skill of the dentist to accomplish such results. Still 12 
the golden has no glory by reason of that which excelleth. 
The normal is better than gold. The perfect tooth is “ a 
thing of beauty,” and should be “ a joy forever.” It is a 
pearl of great price. It is the perfection of beauty. How 
shall such beauty be developed and perpetuated ? The 
dentist ought to answer sucli question. He should be able to 
do something in this direction. He ought to understand 
that Dame Nature cannot appropriate what she cannot 
assimilate; and that she cannot assimilate what is not. 
Starting with sucli knowledge, he should look after the 
embryo man in cases of anticipated maternity. If there is 
to be a perfect development of bones, a perfect denture, the 
material must be furnished to supply the osseous. Give 
the mother that is to be to understand the facts; that she 
has something to do as to the physique of such as open the 
womb: that though bread made of the finest of the wheat, 
bolted of the external shell to perfect whiteness, may be 
pleasant to look upon, and palatable, yet that such bolting 
robs the cereal of the very property essential to the forma- 
tion of bones, and leaves her darling child minus the best of 
teeth, if not in the end sans teeth. For the good of the 
foetus, she had better eat Graham. Nature demands the 
phosphate of the kernel as well as the starch. The coming 
man will know more, I hope, than the present, what dietetics 
best secure good enamel, super-bones, and the best of dentine; 
and will waive false modesty for the benefit of the future man. 
No woman is fit to be wife or mother, who will not adopt 
that regime of exercise or diet that enlightened science 
dictates as the best to secure the highest development of 
her own offspring. 
There are yet certain features of the coming man that 
must be named to perfect the ideal. One is “ largeness of 
heart.” 
There have been and are some large-hearted men in our 13 
profession. None mention them but to praise, nor should 
any but in esteem. All are not of this type. 
With all the science, skill and expertness of our coming 
man, he will not be a patentee of things that come within 
the scope of dental practice; or, if he be, he is not the ideal 
of our heart. There will yet be discoveries and inventions 
as important to dental science and practice as any that have 
been and are. Such is our hope. And he who shall add 
one, or revolutionize to the advancement of the profession 
shall be honored. The generation shall call him blessed. 
Let him not starve his brethren, seeking to fill his own maw. 
“No man liveth to himself,” should be his motto. There is, 
I am told, one in the medical world whose genius has done 
much to advance medical science. He has, from his fruitful 
brain, originated many a surgical instrument of great value 
and use in the practice of surgery, as well as in other de- 
partments of the medical profession. On such inventions 
and improvements he has in instances taken out patents, 
thereby the better to name his own, or perhaps lest some 
unscrupulous interloper should steal his thunder, and seek 
to monopolize the thing for personal ends. Yet has he never 
peddled his inventions, or sold the right to use the patent. 
All of his professional brethren are gratuitously permitted 
to use one or all as they shall find occasion in their varied 
practice. Thus he aids the profession, and thus confers 
benefits on suffering humanity. And the benedictions of the 
profession rest upon him. All honor to the man whose 
genius has a heart, whose aim is not lucre alone 1 May we 
not hope that the time is at hand, shall we not think it now 
is, when the dental shall boast of equal largeness of heart 
as well as of genius as distinguished ? A large-hearted man 
is our admiration. His worth, who can tell ? A shame it is 
that every little petty improvement in the line of dental 
advance should come to be covered by a patent, and that, too, 14 
in instances where the last step was but the normal result of 
the preceding, embodying no new principle, being simply a 
mode of applying the old: a little variation, it may be, in man- 
ipulation, or in the use of the thing. Such is the third patent 
that confronts the profession in the use of rubber. First is 
the vulcanization of rubber; second, its use for dental pur- 
poses, and third — I cannot say last, who knows what is to 
come? — the.Folsom patent, so-called, claiming something 
new in the line of manipulation. Patentees who vend their 
patents in the medical profession are under the ban of the 
profession, and are read out as they should be. So might it 
be in the dental. Our coming man will not sell patents. 
If he should, let him retire outside the profession, and 
approach us as not of us. Of course, one can exercise the 
right of choice, as to being an honored member, or honor- 
able. Our ideal is a man of honor. Are ye not all honor- 
able men ? 
Our ideal is one of conscience, “ a man devoted to teeth,” 
conscientiously devoted. Of course, I speak not of devo- 
tion in a religious sense, though I take it a religious man is 
none the less a man, nor the less a dentist because of his 
religion. “ A Christian is the highest style of man.” If 
this be accepted, it will follow that one can hardly be the 
best style of a dentist without the elements at least of a 
moral, not to say Christian character. There is no profes- 
sion or calling in which a scrupulous conscientiousness is 
more needed than in the dental practice. A case can hardly 
come within the scope of one’s practice that does not have 
some demand on a good conscience. Many a time the patient 
cannot know at first that he is well served. It takes time 
to test our works: for which reason it is that some of the 
best dentists that have lived scarcely obtained their due 
reputation till they “ shuffled off the mortal coil.” Now, it 
may be their skill is recognized in their golden deeds, that 15 
shine and endure as the golden streets they tread, as is 
hoped. They sought to do the best thing they could, and to 
perfect their manipulation and works as they found them- 
selves wanting, even though they might have done inferior 
work, taking covert under the blissful ignorance of such as 
they assumed to serve. They were too scrupulously con- 
scientious to thus impose on the credulity of the confiding 
patient. At least they were conscious of their aim to do 
the best, and thus render the due equivalent for the consid- 
eration asked and received. Such were a Harris, a Towns- 
end, a Flagg, a Miller, and others who have passed on be- 
fore. Such are names that shall be nameless now. Their 
praise can be more appropriately spoken when being dead 
they shall yet speak. These named were pure-minded if 
not Christian men, and acted conscientiously in their profes- 
sion, thus adorning their chosen profession and themselves, 
exalting both. No doubt one can be a scrupulous practi- 
tioner whose character falls short of this highest type. 
Many there be of this conscientious type, to their praise be 
it spoken. They will not do a thing so mean as to merely 
stuff a tooth, passing it along as a filling; nor select a cav- 
ity involving no skill and minus gold, to the neglect or 
sacrifice of teeth that one of the least conscience would 
save. Men do show good conscience in such things, though 
not professedly Christians. A moiety of the article may be of 
some service in keeping one pure of malpractice, and sharp, 
and doubtful; and, besides, the patient may have a double in- 
terest in the matter, not the least being feeward. A little 
conscience in this direction is at times appreciated. May the 
term dentist never come to be regarded as the synonyine of 
extortion. What a marked disparity there is in this matter 
of fees! I once heard one eminent amongst us say: “ I 
once filled a tooth for fifty cents, that I should now charge 
fifty dollars for the same, and I was conscientious then and 16 
now.” Quite a margin that, for conscience. A good man 
who was commended for his piety remarked he had no 
religion to boast of; and the best of us may well say as 
much of conscience. None too much; none to boast of; 
none at least to spare. 
“ Granted that you have got a fund of it, 
Be not shy of showing it; 
Wear it occasionally about, 
As men their go-to-meeting suit.” 
It can be shown without prating of it; worn without 
offensive ostentation; liued without cant; practised, as of 
one’s own nature, without effort. “ Of your own selves, 
judge ye what is right.” 
A man devoted to teeth ought to be a man “ devoted to 
the skies.” He ought to serve his God as well as his gen- 
eration in the line of teeth. The ideal is one of conscience 
without cant; a man learned without rant. Virtue has been 
called “ The mean between two extremes.” The golden 
mean lies between boorishness and foppishness. A dentist 
should be neither a boor nor a fop. He should avoid cov- 
etousness as profligateness, walking in the way of liberality, 
given to hospitality and to whatsoever things are of good 
report and are calculated to exalt the pi'ofossion to be justly 
called liberal. 
Our preferred ideal is both a Nazarite and a Traskite. 
He will drink neither wine nor strong drink; nor will he 
benumb his senses by the use of narcotics. There is no 
mean in these things. “ Touch not the unclean thing ” is 
alike the rule of safety and cleanliness. Clean hands, a pure 
breath, pure language, a pure heart, should characterize oui- 
profession. All purity should he the dentist! Uncorrupt, 
uncorrupted, uncorrupting, —such is the true man; incapable 
alike of seducing or of being seduced from virtue. A lust- 
ful, lecherous practitioner is to be abominated, as one despises 17 
Milton’s toad whispering in the ear of innocence. Such had 
better seek some other calling congenial to deeds of dark- 
ness that dare not seek the light. With such an one, 0 my 
soul, bo not thou united ! What avails the best of dental 
skill, the most perfect workmanship, if all this be but the 
means one shall use to accomplish ruin ? Goodness has its 
place in professional life. One had better be minus a little 
skill, and come short as to the highest possible perfection in 
operative dentistry than be bankrupt in moral virtue. It is 
sad to know that skill is at times shunned because of doubt- 
ful character. Distinguished professional reputation is not 
all that is needed by the dentist. Like Caesar’s wife, he 
should be above suspicion. Our ideal embraces moral ex- 
cellence as well as professional ability. Of course the pro- 
fession has had and has at present the best of men. It is 
such that elevate the profession. Character is needed as 
well as notoriety to give the right reputation to the success- 
ful dentist. 
What shall not be expected, a generation coming, of the 
dental profession ? One can hardly keep booked up these 
days in the advance of science in all directions. Things 
new and important, and of great value are being discovered 
and made known. Specialties that were are divided again 
into specialties, and each division foretokens further division; 
for it is found the field enlarges as due attention is bestowed 
upon any one specialty. No man can hope to keep himself 
fully informed of the progress of science in general, even 
though he take all knowledge as his province. One shall 
do well if he keep pace in the progress of his own chosen 
profession. In the line of the past, what have not been im- 
provements made, and benefits conferred, and knowledge 
gained, advantaging dental science, and perfecting the pro- 
fession ? The forceps have taken the place of the turnkey, 
once quite universally used, barbarous as it was; mineral 18 
teeth have substituted those made of bones; the adhesive- 
ness of gold and the practical working of the same by the 
use of serrated pluggers, thus enabling the operator to 
restore the form of a carious tooth with gold, as solid as 
though it had been molten and poured into the cavity as into 
an ingot; the perfecting of foils in their manufacture to this 
end; the rubber dam, the better to secure such golden 
results; the use of vulcanite as a basis for artificial dentures; 
treatment of exposed nerves, so as to save an aching tooth 
once deemed doomed beyond repair; anaesthesia, born of the 
dental profession and nurtured by it; dental literature not 
to be scoffed at; dental colleges and associations,—all this and 
more may be looked upon as coming within the experience 
of members of this society. From this standpoint, what shall 
we not expect as to discovery, invention, progress, practice, 
in a word, success, within the generation following?* The 
past becomes the pledge of the future. What has been, 
and is justifies the hope of the better and still better. 
Thought impregnating thought shall yet give birth, perchance, 
to something as wonderful and beneficial as aught that is. 
Nature’s secrets are not all discovered, nor are her resources 
exhausted. However conversant and learned in one’s spe- 
cialty, there are limitations to knowledge in such province. 
There are a thousand things yet unknown to be sought 
out. Our patients often put to us questions the wisest 
of us cannot answer. What is the cause, the prime cause, 
of caries ? Do you presume to tell ? Want of clean- 
liness, is it? Teeth do decay notwithstanding the utmost 
cleanliness, in some cases. The secretions are bad, you will 
say. In what does their vileness consist? Is there no 
specific to render the secretions normal, healthful ? Or 
is there no remedy to arrest the chemical action of vi- 
tiated secretions ? May we not hope to beget or to re- 
store healthful secretions ? How is it that the fathers 19 
having eaten sour grapes, the children’s teeth are vitia- 
ted ? How is it that one in a family has a good denture 
as has the sire, while a sister inherits a mother’s tendency to 
toothlessness ? Or how is it that the daughter gets a good 
denture from the father, and the son a frightfully bad one 
from the mother ? Or how is it that both parents, having 
miserable dentures, the child has a tolerable one at least? 
Or, as is oftener the case, how is it that progenitors having 
first-class teeth, the children are deficient in good teeth? 
There is something of mystery about this hereditary, some- 
thing to be learned. Grace, it is said, can reach hered- 
itary depravity. Perchance hereditary rottenness of bones 
may be reached, and prevented. Admitting the fact of 
bad or good teeth in lineal descent, cannot something be 
done to give better results, to augment the good and prevent 
the evils that come in such line ? Is the hereditary naught 
but stern fate ? And must science submit, be reconciled to, 
nor hope to alleviate, the dire evil, being a dire necessity ? 
Nay, something may be done in this direction. Grace can 
reach even total depravity. The relation of certain phos- 
phates to the dentine, and their use in the perfection of the 
denture, in the development of first-class teeth at first, as 
well as in their preservation, shall come to be better under- 
stood. Possibly it is within the province of dental science 
to so exempt the future poet from the ills of rotten bones 
as that he shall not abuse his Muse in penning maledictions 
in rhyme, as: — 
“ A curse upon my venomed slang; 
That shoots my tortured gums along, 
With gnawing vengeance 1 ” 
Of course it is not in the province of all science to entail 
physical immortality; but can it not be hoped that mortal 
man may be saved to some extent from the torments of ach- 
ing teeth that Burns compares to perdition, to “ the place 20 
priests call hell ? ” Is it indeed a hopeless chimera this of 
prevention of rottenness entailed ? Can nothing be done to 
secure a healthful, robust physique, free for a mortal life 
from scrofula and caries ? Can nothing ever be learned as 
to how the bones do grow in the womb, as to the aliment 
required for their due perfection, as to the diet one should 
have, looking to maternity, the tendency of which shall be 
to secure a perfect denture, beautiful in development and en- 
during as life ? Our coming man will know. 
If not possible to reach the matter in such direction, how 
about vitiated secretions ? Is there no means to prevent 
such, or to counteract ? Must the sufferer endure, as best 
he can, the demolition of these fair forms of beauty as a 
necessity, because of the remediless, vileness of the secre- 
tions ? Is there no specific for the abnormal so powerfully 
destructive of the dentals ? This is only suggestive of the 
field of research yet before us. u There remaineth yet very 
much land to be possessed.” 
As the domain of science shall be extended, specialties 
multiplying and being perfected, each in its sphere, aided by 
chemical analysis, the intelligent use of the microscope, by 
close and persistent observation, by sure, certain, enlightened 
experience, by scientific practice, may we not hope the den- 
tal is to reap largesses fully equal to the harvest already 
gathered ? Is it too much to expect that tin-foil amalgams, 
os artificial, shall be supplanted by some discovery to take 
their place that shall equal gold for filling teeth ? Such 
discovery would be more than the philosopher’s stone to the 
race. It will be the pearl of great price. It remains that 
such desideratum be met. Our coming man may meet it, 
or at least partake of its advantages. He will hold fast the 
good that is, seeking the better, aiming for the best, perfect- 
ing himself in all things.