AN ADDRESS 
ON 
DENTAL EDUCATION, 
BEFORE THE 
CHICAGO DENTAL SOCIETY, 
By H. E. PEEBLES, D.D.S. 
Professor of Operative Dentistry in the Missouri College of Dental Surgery. 
CINCINNATI : 
O 
WRIGHTSON & CO., PRINTERS, 167 WALNUT STREET. 
1867. CHICAGO DENTAL SOCIETY 
ADDRESS 
OF 
PROP. IE1. ZED. PEEBLES. 
At the regular monthly meeting of this Society, held on 
the evening of July 1st, a resolution was unanimously passed 
inviting Prof. H. E. Peebles, of Saint Louis, to deliver an 
address before the Association, at his earliest convenience. 
This invitation having been kindly accepted, the members of 
the Society, together with a large number of the Dental and 
medical profession of the city, assembled in one of the pub- 
lic halls, on the evening of July 12th, and listened to the 
address which follows. 
The occasion was one of great interest, and will long be 
remembered by the profession in this vicinity ; and the high 
standard of Dental education, advocated by the speaker, re- 
ceived unanimous endorsement. 
Upon the close of the address the following resolution was 
offered by Dr. M. S. Dean, and which prevailed unanimously : 
Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are hereby ten- 
dered to Prof. H. E. Peebles, of the Missouri Dental College, 
for his very able and interesting address delivered before this 
Association, and that he is hereby requested to furnish a copy 
of the same for publication. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen Members of the Chicago Pen- 
ial Society, and Gentlemen Visitors: 
Through the politeness and urbanity of this Society you 
are assembled together this evening to listen to a very hastily 
prepared address from one who feels his inadequacy to the 4 
task imposed, and begs your kind indulgence to the many 
faults that must of necessity appear in a paper so hurriedly 
gotton up. 
The Chicago Dental Society was organized in January, 
1864, with about a dozen active members, to which were 
added eleven honorary members, selected from the Dentists 
of eight different states. Taking three of that number from 
the state of Missouri, and city of St. Louis, in which number 
your speaker has the honor to be counted, and for this 
honorable distinction placed upon the Mound City, I tender 
the Society our grateful acknowledgments. 
The late venerable Dr. E. W. Hadley, was the first Presi- 
dent of your Society. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. 
Hadley only once. * Then he made a very favorable impress- 
ion upon me. Dr. H. finished his work and closed his office 
in 1865, and went to his Father and our Father to receive 
his reward. How sad you all felt while standing around his 
grave on that memorable 6th day of March, to see the re- 
mains of your presiding officer deposited in the tomb. But 
such is our common doom, and oh, how dark would be that 
tomb if the blessed Jesus had not lain there, and arising 
opened up the living way to a better world. 
During the two years and a half of your existence as a 
Society, you have met, no doubt, with some discouragements, 
and some opposition, as every association of men for good 
purposes does meet. But from your records I see that you 
have gone on in the path of duty, and greatly increased in 
numerical strength, even doubling your membership. And 
by your regulap monthly meetings and discussions, you have 
grown in station and understanding as practitioners, to say 
nothing about the increase of social feeling and professional 
courtesy. The Chicago Dental Society is a tower of strength. 
This Society is shedding a light upon the minds not only of 
its members, but upon the mind of every Dentist in this great 
city, from the highest to the lowest. Some may deny this, 
others may be too low in the scale of enlightenment and pro- 5 
gress yet to perceive this fact. To you belong the honor and 
responsibility of the organization of a State Society in 
Illinois. 
Go on brothers, and do your duty, and leave results to God 
and posterity. 
Gentlemen :—In presenting the subject I have chosen for 
this address, Education, I have had to draw somewhat from 
the thoughts of other men. 
The time that has elapsed since I received your very flat- 
tering invitation, and the present, and I have had so many du- 
ties to perform in the meantime, that I have been unable to do 
more than make this rough draught in pencil. A decent 
copy, much less a condensation of the matter were wholly 
out of the question. 
With these preliminary remarks, I shall proceed to the dis- 
cussion of the subject. 
Dentistry is a specialty of medicine. A specialty cannot 
be separated from the parent stock, and be maintained as an 
independent profession. 
Dental Surgery depends upon the same general principles 
and is governed by the same laws that govern general surgery. 
Hence, the same course of study, and the same general teach- 
ing, that is demanded in the one case, is necessary in the 
other, as a foundation upon which to predicate the specialty. 
Therefore, if the Surgeon is a Physician—a Doctor—so is 
the Dentist, the Aurist, the Oculist, for all are specialists in 
medicine. 
No specialty can with impunity do that which will bring 
odium upon medicine. The special practitioner, is as much 
and as strongly bound by the laws of honor, etiquette, and 
courtesy as the general practitioner is. 
With these propositions before us, we will proceed to en- 
quire into the present standing and condition of our specialty, 
in our own country; also, casting a retrospective glance back 
over a few decades of years, we will compare Dentistry then, 
with Dentistry now, and undertake to show an unpreceden- 6 
ted advancement in our specialty over any other department 
of medicine. We will also enquire into the cause of this pro- 
gress and show its results, in securing for us a place and a 
standing in the great family of medical men. In this inves- 
tigation, it may be argued, that the main sources of our suc- 
cess—our progress up to the present time—are now well nigh 
exhausted, and that it behooves us to look for other and 
more enduring means of growth and progress as a specialty, 
or the time will come, and is now near at hand, that we may 
be outstripped and fall in the rear. 
A thorough and correct medical education, preceded by, 
and resting upon a good academic course of mental discip- 
line and literary acquirement, must henceforward be regar- 
ded as the basis of our superstructure. 
The organic elevating machinery of our specialty consists 
mainly at the present time, in association, journalism, and the 
lecture room. 
There are now over forty Dental societies, in good work- 
ing order in the United States of America ; and a year 
scarcely passes in which one more such association is not 
organized and added to the list. 
There are now, I believe six Dental periodicals published; 
the seventh is to commence in October next, and an eighth is 
in contemplation and may issue very soon. 
We have also six Dental colleges in full operation now, 
and our New England brothers are preparing to open the 
seventh, in Boston, upon the same plan and basis as the Mis- 
souri Dental College. 
And we trust the time is not far in the future, when the 
necessity will become apparent to the 'profession, that our 
specialty must needs be taught by regular curriculum in the 
great City of the Lakes. And here too, like in St. Louis, 
she will open her halls, her lectures, museums and hospitals 
to her young and beautiful daughter, and bid her enter and 
share in the feast of medical science. 
Progress is stamped upon our escutcheon. Onward and 7 
upward are our watchwords. We have not run long, but we 
have run well. The Goal is not yet in sight. The way is 
long and weary. Shall we tire and faint by the way ? Shall 
we grow weary and slacken our pace ? 
Nay, but let us like the true knight, face and fight all ene- 
mies, brave manfully all difficulties, and put forth strength 
and energy commensurate with the demand and emergency, 
and victory will finally perch upon our standard; and the 
laurel wreath will encircle the brow of the conquerer. 
Though the present hearers and speaker will be laid low be- 
neath the cold clods of the valley, and our sons, and their 
grand sons may have come and gone, before the halcyon days 
arrive ; still the time will come, when Dental Surgery will 
stand pre-eminent as a specialty in medicine. 
See, my brothers, where we stand to-day! Does the 
learned physician, or the eminent surgeon, fear to cordially 
greet you, or lock arms with you in the street? Are we not 
treated as equals—as brothers, and why is this so ? We are 
still but in our infancy as special practitioners. For when 
your speaker commenced practice in 1836, there was no Den- 
tal society—no Dental periodical, or Dental college in the 
w'orld, nor had there ever been any such thing heard of. Thirty 
years have not yet elapsed since the organization of a little 
society in New York, from which sprang the American So- 
ciety of Dental Surgeons. This society soon felt the neces- 
sity for a journal to publish their proceedings and transac- 
tions, hence, the American Journal of Dental Science. The 
cultivation and exercise of the talent found in this associa- 
tion developed the necessity for a school to teach the pecu- 
liar art and elucidate the science of Dentistry, and hence in 
1839, the General Assembly of the State of Maryland was 
induced to grant a charter for a Dental College, in the city 
of Baltimore. 
The American Society of Dental Surgeons embraced in 
her membership, the very best talent there was in the Dental 
ranks at the time. And to her honor be it spoken she did 8 
much good, and performed many noble and generous acts. 
But alas ! she committed the egregious blunder of indulging 
in transcendental legislation, and prescribed the hind of ma - 
terials that she considered royal, and which might be used 
by her subjects, and they continue to be loyal. She, like 
governments of greater magnitude struck upon the hidden 
rock of reserved rights, and soon became a thing of the past. 
The Mississippi Valley Association soon followed in or- 
ganization, and now stands as the senior sister of the West- 
ern Dental Society; the Indiana State Dental Society ; the 
American Dental Convention; the American Dental Asso- 
ciation, and a host of state, district and city societies. 
In the meantime, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 
the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, the Pennsylvania Col- 
lege of Dental Surgery, the Philadelphia Dental College, the 
New York College of Dentistry, and last, but not least the 
school your speaker has the honor to represent here this even- 
ing, the Missouri Dental College, were successively got- 
ten into operation ; and each one has shown its fruits, and all 
are doing good service in building up the little mole hill of 
Dental science and art. 
To our specialty belongs the honor of the introduction and 
application of one of the greatest achievements of modern 
science. That which has relieved more human suffering and 
pain than any one thing, in all the wide range of medical learn- 
ing. I mean anaesthetics. And to us belong all, or nearly all the 
improvements made in the manufacture and administration of 
chloroform and nitrous oxyd. 
Some of the nicest histological examinations and elucida- 
tions have been made under the microscope of the Dentist. 
And what surgeon has ever performed a nicer operation than 
that of neurosection of the Dental pulp ; by which its nor- 
mal condition is maintained, and a covering of secondary 
dentine induced. 
And gentlemen, we all, even the youngest of you, who have 
been regular attendants upon the meetings of Dental socie- 9 
ties, know that in our discussions we manifest a healthy and 
vigorous growth in scientific attainment. Just look back a 
few years and you will see that “ professional fees,” “ hard 
rubber,” “ best materials for filling,” etc., engrossed the en- 
tire attention of the gentlemen in session ! But how stands 
the case now ? “Histology,” “Physiology,” “Pathology” 
and “ Education” come forth as the prominent subjects for 
discussion. In each of the two State society meetings, this 
summer, west of the Mississippi river, there were four ele- 
gant microscopes employed to elucidate Histology, Physiolo- 
gy, and Pathology. These facts need no comment. They 
are patent to all. 
Each and all these things, gentlemen, speak for us, and 
give the reasons why the physician and surgeon cordially 
grasp your hand as a respected and beloved brother and fel- 
low in the great family of doctors. 
Yes, it is because we have been up and doing—we have 
been learning—we have beeu trying to educate and to elevate 
ourselves, and to grow respectable. For, in professions and 
callings as in individuals, when they become respectable, they 
will be respected.' 
Although we began far down in the social and professional 
scale, we began no lower than the surgeon or the physician. 
And certainly we have made as rapid progress in knowledge, 
science, elevation and education, as any of our sister special- 
ties, or even our venerated mother, general medicine. 
Then, if these propositions be true, as we assume they are, 
it becomes us to enquire into the best modes of education, 
and how we shall proceed in the future so as to maintain the 
ground we now hold, and to advance in as safe, if not as 
rapid marches up the steep and rugged hill of science, and 
across the thorny plains of human wisdom and intellection. 
The indomitable energy of the hone3t, earnest workers in 
the Dental ranks, who, seeing the true position of things, and 
understanding at a glance, that to elevate ourselves as 
specialists we must work, we must study, we must learn, have 10 
laid their shoulders to the wheel, and the car has moved on 
steadily. 
The great fascination of the nicety of manipulation, has 
drawn out the best efforts and the highest skill of the Den- 
tal operator. The laudable desire to imitate the Great Crea- 
tor, and repair the damages wrought by decay upon the pearly 
arches of beauty, in His noblest work; as well as the en- 
couragement given by the liberal minded, and noble hearted 
physician, have all contributed to inspire the Dentist with an 
ardent love for his calling. These several considerations 
have aided us in our rapid advancement. But having thus 
attained unto a certain point of proficiency other aids and 
stimuli must be invoked, or we must fall in the wake. 
We are far advanced in the art, but can the art precede 
the science ? “ Can practical application go in advance of 
discovery of data ? Can implements be made without mate- 
rial ?” “ Can fabrics be woven without both implements 
and material ?” Useful arts can therefore make no more 
rapid development than science. “ In fact, art is usually be- 
hind science by long stretches of distance, and these some- 
times so great that the popular voice, not discovering their 
mutual dependence, sometimes clamors against science as 
dreamy and unworthy, because it seems useless.” “ Science 
is its own justification; it needs no defence any more than 
truth', the one is synonymous with the other.” 
“ But the mass of mankind are most concerned to secure 
the comforts and benefits of useful arts. The needs of the 
body, the happiness of society must be provided for.” 
“ Men have a right to demand of science, that she do not 
shut up her treasures as ore in the bowels of the earth, but 
freely yield them up to be fashioned into implements, for use- 
ful labor and to minister to the happiness and welfare of the 
race.” Humanity and benevolence enter with authority to 
compel the assent of science to their mandates. 
There frequently occurs in noble minds a sore conflict be- 
tween the demands of pressing labor and the monitions of 11 
conscience and of the sense of duty. As such a one, to the 
best of his skill, administers to the distresses of men, he 
fears that his mind may not possess all the facts, which late 
investigation has afforded upon this or that case; or that 
his hand may not wield the instrument with the correct- 
ness and skill which other men have acquired. What 
operator of twenty years practice has not felt this burden ? 
What young Dentist in his first years has not been har- 
rassed by the fear that he is not doing justice to his patient, 
because he may not be fully competent in the knowledge of 
the case ? 
“ To what purpose is our Dental journalism but to furnish 
to the anxious, waiting practitioner the latest facts, discover- 
ies and modes of operation or treatment; to be at once seized 
upon for the good of our patients ?” Why then fill their 
valued pages with the mere details of the business matters 
transacted in local societies ? 
But is any Dental practitioner bold enough to say, that he 
has explored the records of the past—has stored his mind 
with all the wisdom of recent years, and is every year up to 
the level of modern science, so that he comprehends within 
his grasp all of science, and can apply his art with the high- 
est human skill? “ That no case can be presented to him in 
which he cannot offer the best and soundest advice possible, 
among the Dental profession. Can settle a diagnosis with a 
precision which no other can excel. Can perform an opera- 
tion with a dexterity inferior to no other ?” 
“ Such perfection of skill and knowledge, no man of ordi- 
nary sense, modesty or veracity will venture to affirm of 
himself. The assumption would to his fellows be the strong- 
est evidence of his imperfections.” 
“As the decades pass, and science and art attain greater 
completeness, the labor of the Dentist in fitting himself for 
his profession, becomes more and mere heavy. As life ad- 
vances, and the cares of increasing practice multiply, his 
disposable time for study, of both his own and other men’s 12 
labors becomes less and less, until it may be reduced to the 
merest fraction of a day.” 
Still, perhaps, no class of men strive harder than medical 
men do, to keep fully up to the times, in the sciences more 
nearly and directly effecting the art they practice ; but too 
often they are the first to accuse themselves of being unable 
to meet the duties of their daily calling, and keep pace with 
modern improvement. And it will be observed that the men 
ready to make this confession are, or have been, the most 
studious, the best qualified practitioners among us. 
Many a man, a willing votary of science, deplores the fact, 
that he is so swallowed up in the cares, the labors and the hurry 
of practice that neither energy or time remain for the quiet 
pursuits, to which he would gladly turn. “ Could the human 
frame endure heavy encroachments on the hours of sleep, 
and this for long periods, or a long life, what rich contribu- 
tions would multitudes of general practitioners and Dental 
surgeons bring to their respective sciences. This unhappily 
is impossible, as many an overwrought brain discovers; but 
seldom in time to secure its longer services in the cause of 
science and human improvement. 
The arduous physical and mental labors of the truly am- 
bitious and industrious operator and student in our ranks, too 
frequently urged with an imprudent zeal, are often stopped 
by death. “ The man fitted mentally to do most and best, 
feels keenly the brevity of earthly career, and strives by 
diligence too great for human endurance, to make life most 
fruitful. But alas, how often is he and his friends, disap- 
pointed in the promise of a rich harvest, because the Great 
Reaper thrust the sickle into the laborer’s field.” 
“ All medical men agree in seeking the growth and im- 
provement of their art. All admit that its science should 
steadily and unfalteringly move forward. All will admit that 
the art cannot in any large sense move onward faster than 
the science, and that the true way to better the art is to en- 
large the science.” 13 
The air, the earth, the sea, must contribute to soften the 
hardships of social condition, to cure the sickness of men ; to 
soothe the pains of decay and dissolution. 
“ This brings us to the subject of medicine. It is both a 
science and an art. As a science, far in advance of its 
early beginnings, yet mayhap as far yet from its ultimate 
perfection as from its primeval state. As an art its effi- 
ciency and success depend upon the fullness and clearness 
with which its facts are learned and logically systematized; 
upon the memory and readiness of the practitioner ; upon the 
skill of his manipulations; upon the fertility of his inven- 
tive and adaptive power; and upon the keenness of his sen- 
ses, touch, sight, hearing, &c. To successfully practice an 
art, demands first the careful study of science and also the 
education of the individual; or, as I may express it, taking 
the practitioner in the sense of an instrument, he must be 
fashioned into shape and fitness in both mental and physical 
qualities, before he can deal with the facts of science in cheir 
application. To make a fabric for wearing apparel, science 
must discover the crude cotton, silk, or wool, and prepare it 
for use; while art must invent the weaving machine and bring 
it to perfection. The physician possesses himself of facts 
furnished by science, which are his raw material, and then 
proceeds to qualify himself to apply them to his healing art. 
In the economic arts it may matter little if there be a 
wide discrepancy between the advanced state of science and 
the clumsy appliances which utilize it. Convenience and 
luxury may be lacking, but perhaps nothing more. In the 
art of medicine there must be no such discrepancy. Human 
woe and bodily privation, the loss of health, the loss of the 
senses, and the loss of life are the subject matter of this art. 
Here there may be no lagging behind the front line of 
scientific attainment; the very fore front is where the 
disciple of the ars medendi must place himself and remain. 
He has no business in the rear; he is recreant to himself, 
recreant to humanity, recreant to duty and to religion, if 14 
he voluntarily stay behind in the onward march of medical 
science.” 
“ It is not to be denied that some men obtain extraordinary 
success in grasping a multitude of facts, and in reducing them 
to systematic and logical order. They are the master minds 
of their age, and their names will be enduring as human 
memory. But gifted men, like Erasmus, Bacon and Hum- 
boldt, are the astonishment of mankind, and were we obliged 
to wait for their advent in the cause of science, the accumula- 
tion of knowledge would be at the rate of progression in geo- 
logical eras, while the mode of progress, instead of being by 
gradual accretion, would be an alternation of long and dreary 
ages of stagnation with brief times of dazzling splendor. 
Such, however, is not the order of things. The processes of 
nature and the growth of human knowledge are alike. 
Increase is by slow additions, by patient and pains taking 
observation. A multitude of workers, each bearing the little 
burden which he has gathered from the path where he has 
wandered, cast in their contributions, and as the decades pass 
the stately pile of human knowledge creeps upwards; it 
slowly assumes harmonious proportion, broadens its base, and 
lifts its soaring height. The rising of an ant hill, the build- 
ing of Cheops, in one sense are typical of the increase of 
science ; but these limited and finite models are far from be- 
ing perfect representatives, for science is the gleaning of 
gems from the exhaustless mines of knowledge, whose store- 
houses are the recesses of the infinite mind; to neither may 
we venture to set bounds.” 
“ In actual fact, regarding the practitioners of medicine, 
surgery or Dentistry as we find them, does not every one 
know that but very few of them possess the highest fitness 
which medical knowledge and skill can reach ? This is largely 
due to defects of education, both of an academic kind and in 
the schools of medicine and Dentistry. Men are often com- 
pelled, by the need of getting a livelihood, to enter practice, 
feeling themselves yet very inadequately prepared. 15 
“Want of fitness at the outset of medical life must to a 
greater or less degree be affirmed of every one. Youth can- 
not claim the attributes of age and experience. If in this 
regard the young doctor is at a disadvantage, neither on the 
other hand ought the standard of medical attainment to be 
purely theoretical and transcendental. It must be such as 
the wisdom of experienced and practical men deems needful. 
It must fairly represent the present; it were folly in impo- 
sing medical qualifications to seek to discount the future.” 
It may then be asked, can any specialty in medicine be 
fully acquired, or thoroughly taught in a school, when the 
general principles of medical science are not taught in the 
fullest sense of the term? 
Can the anatomist, thoroughly instruct his class in “ ocular 
anatomy,” or “ aurical anatomy,” or “dental anatomy,” to 
the exclusion of general anatomy ? Can the engineer teach 
boiler engineering to one ; cylinder engineering to a second ; 
piston engineering to a third ; cam engineering to a fourth ; 
and so on to the end of the various parts of his complex ma- 
chine ; yet, far simpler than the machinery of the human 
frame that is “ wonderfully and fearfully made?” 
Or, can the physiologist teach a special physiology, and 
show us the functions of a set of organs necessary to sight, 
or to touch, or to hearing, &c., without teaching the general 
range of his chain ? Or can the pathologist, demonstrate 
to his class, how and why disease exists in the eye, the ear, 
or the mouth and teeth, and not examine the condition of 
other organs and their functions ? Does not the intimate 
and complete connection of the sound parts with all their 
nice relation to, and dependencies of each one upon the 
whole ; as well US' the general circulation of the blood ; the dis- 
tribution and all pervasion of the nervous system ; the common 
centers of alimentation and respiration, all tend to prove the 
absurdity of exclusive special teaching ? 
The man who claims to be a well qualified Dentist, and 
gives no heed to general medicine in his preparation, or he 16 
who claims pre-eminence upon his mechanical skill alone, is 
as little of a true Dentist as the stone cutter, who chisels the 
ashlar to the requirements of his rule and square is an archi- 
tect, compared with the man of talent and science who plans 
and rears the noble edifice. 
“ Medical science differs from nearly all other sciences.” 
Chemistry pursues the labors of the scales and the retort. 
Botany seeks light and knowledge in the field and the forest. 
While geology is busily hammering the rocks, or boring deep 
down into the bowels of mother earth. But medical science 
has to deal with a peculiar organism. “ The subject or pa- 
tient if you please is a man ; his whole organism is before us ; 
it may be only partially diseased, but that part bears inti- 
mate relations to all other parts ; and sometimes is insepara- 
ble from the whole. No part or organ can be isolated from 
the rest of the body in health ; nor can it be isolated in the 
phenomena of disease.” 
The specialist, be he oculist, aurist or Dentist, has no just 
claims to the honors of a medical gentleman, who has not 
striven to gain a thorough knowledge of general medicine. 
The science of medicine, in its general range, is not taught 
in our schools of specialty, as they are generally constituted. 
Nor will it be, so long as the absurd notion of making a mere 
specialist, is kept up, and our schools ignore the fact that a 
thorough knowledge of general anatomy, physiology, path- 
ology and therapeutics is essential to the education of our 
specialists. 
Where is the author of “ aural physiology ?” Who has 
given us an “ ocular pathology ?” And yet would either be 
more remarkable than “ Dental chemistry,” or chairs of 
“ Dental physiology,” or “ Dental pathology ?” Such marks 
of weakness, faulty judgment, and inexperience are incident 
to our youthful days as a specialty, better things may be 
expected of us ere long. Our schools will necessarily en- 
large their curriculum, and widen their range of instruction. 
This, I think, is clearly indicated by recent developments. 17 
If the true physician seeks to enlarge his knowledge be- 
yond the immediate confines of his profession. “ The 
specialist can lay no claim to honor and respect, if he permit 
himself to shrivel into the scanty limits of his little shell, and 
know nothing outside of its impenetrable crust.” 
He should be well educated in general medicine and sur- 
gery, and in all their departments. He ought to know them 
practically. If practicable, he should seek this practical 
knowledge in general hospitals. 
When thus made ready for the wide responsibility of gen- 
eral practice—then let him turn his attention to his selected 
specialty, and select that school where the widest scope is 
given, and the most ample curriculum is presented. 
“ Let the specialist take this ground, that he has mastered 
all the preliminary studies which every physician pursues 
when he sets forth in his career, and then let him add to this 
preparation the further labors of his chosen department, cul- 
tivated with ardor, and to a degree which puts him in this 
particular qualification visibly above the attainments of his 
fellows, and he then need not fear a want of recognition and 
respect. His fellows in the profession must and will respect 
him. He is one of them ; he never secedes from their ranks, 
nor will they have the least disposition to cast him out.” 
“ He is jealous of professional honor—he is mindful of 
professional courtesy. He is none the less bound by ethi- 
cal rules than are his brethren. His real position toward 
them is that of a counsellor in difficult cases belonging to his 
sphere. He claims a peculiar skill on one subject; when other 
practitioners need counsel in these cases, they ask for his as- 
sistance. They may simply call him in consultation, or they 
may turn the patient over to his care. In either case the 
specialist must govern himself by the rules which all medical 
men observe in holding consultations with each other.” 
“ Specialists have sometimes demanded, as their right, that 
they may advertise their pretensions in the public prints or 
in the medical journals. The former kind of self-proclama- 18 
tion is universally condemned by the profession, as an un- 
worthy attitude for the member of a liberal profession, to 
hold towards the community; none the less should it be con- 
demned and abnegated by the specialist. Advertising in medi- 
cal journals may be done as offensively as in any other prints.” 
But prior to all this, professional education then must be a 
solid foundation laid, a broad basal structure erected, in the 
mind of the youth; by a thorough course of discipline and 
instruction upon which to build the beautiful edifice of pro- 
fessional learning and usefulness contemplated in the fore- 
going remarks. 
I have just read a paper on education in one of our most 
popular weeklies that seems to cover the ground now contem- 
plated in the organization of a system of intermediate schools 
of such a character that a youth could there be fitted for any 
of the ordinary pursuits of life. And also, the establish- 
ment of one grand university in the West, where all science 
would be taught, and from whence may emanate scholars, 
statesmen, lawyers, physicians, surgeons, dentists, etc. And 
I now beg your indulgence while I read an extract or two 
from this valuable paper : 
“ We are aware that in the present condition of education 
and the material upon which it has to act, above all with the 
pressure upon young men, which is on the increase, to com- 
plete their educational course at the earliest possible date, 
the number of those likely to enjoy the inestimable moral 
and mental advantages in the discipline of the faculties which 
the Latin and Greek, more than any other languages afford, 
can not, as compared even with the better class of the popu- 
lation, be great. We do not expect to see the standard of 
Oxford, or Cambridge, or Salamanca attained, save in indi- 
vidual instances; but we do contend that our higher educa- 
tion should be real and solid as far as it goes, and thorough 
and complete when it is attempted to be carried out. This 
must be taken as the illuminating idea of these remarks, and 
quicken them with their true interpretation. 19 
On no subject, probably, are there more false theories, 
more vague and erroneous notions, than education ; and this 
among other causes, from the fact that whilst on the one hand 
its importance and the interest it excites force it upon the 
attention of every intelligent mind, on the other, it can not 
be fairly grasped, nor its principles understood save by those 
who have, in a measure at least, participated in its substan- 
tial advantages. Again, education is the formation of the 
intellect; but the intellect being a faculty, or the union of 
several faculties, of the soul, is distinguishable but not sepa- 
rable from it. In forming the mind you necessarily affect 
the soul. Thus, at the very start, a vast field is opened and 
most momentous moral questions laid bare. 
To form and train the mind is a science and an art. The 
process, from a Christian standpoint, is based upon one cen- 
tral idea, depends upon certain principles, is carried out by 
certain methods whose advantage experience his demonstra- 
ted ; and ail this is as much beyond the depth of him who 
has not mastered the subject as is any other science reduced 
to an art—the practice of medicine for instance. Now there 
are two ways in which a mastery of the subject may be 
gained: either as a result of having been well trained one’s 
self, or through a special and careful study of the question ; 
and even this latter presupposes the groundwork of a liberal 
education. The number possessing either advantage is more 
limited than one might suppose. But as so many, now-a- 
days, undertake to discuss the subject in some or all of its 
branches or phases, the result is that crudities, absurdities, 
mischievous theories and pernicious errors are constantly 
being put before the public in newspapers and other publica- 
tions, and thus influence the community, and even confuse, 
blind and lead astray the judgement of numbers otherwise 
disposed to be docile and right-minded. But the mischief 
rests not here. These things becoming diffused by frequent 
repetition, carry with them in that very fact a sort of proof 
which warrants their being taken for granted; they approve 20 
themselves to the mind, and engender kindred ideas and 
views. Parents endeavor to realize them in the education of 
their children, and officious public opinion intervenes to claim 
that they be accepted. Thus is created a demand for certain 
species or fashions of education ; and the demand produces 
a supply. Some men are found but too willing to cater to 
these wants, and others from an overruling necessity are 
forced to imitate, to some extent, their example. Hence 
“commercial colleges” with their pretence, academies with 
their sham, colleges with degrees, schools burlesquing univer- 
sities, universities with ABC pupils, graduates who are only 
fit to enter the curriculum, and the general shallowness of 
what is called education. (The rage is to learn in the short- 
est time, and with the least labor. But nothing real and 
solid is acquired. A little of everything is learned; at bot- 
tom nothing.) 
Still all this most astonishing unreality with many of its 
mistakes and errors patent on its face, is termed and by very 
many supposed to be education. And what is more, it is not 
only a sober fact which stares every one in the face who investi- 
gates the question of liberal culture with a view to aid its ad- 
vancement in the society in which he lives, but one of the 
terrible obstacles to be overcome. 
Our interests in this respect, it would seem, require first, 
the establishment of a class of schools whose end shall be 
clearly understood and well defined, intermediary in their 
character and limited in their object, and provided with 
means to enable them to surmount the difficulties growing out 
of inadequate support, and to ensure a durable existence 
liable to no flux or decay from individual caprice or the acci- 
dents of life, so that they may attain, as near as may be, the 
end for which they are established. We need a class of 
schools which will provide for our youth what Eaton, and 
Harrow, and Rugby, and the German Gymnasia provide for 
the English and German—a class of schools in which they 
may be judiciously and thoroughly trained within the limit 21 
of the studies proper to such institutions, and sent forth to 
enter the curriculum of the university, or to begin the world 
if their schooling is to end with their fifteenth or sixteenth 
year ; and next, a university—one real University in the 
West. 
Education, is not the juxtaposition of disjointed, discon- 
nected or incongruous parts, but a homogeneous whole. It 
starts from a central point, proceeds on certain well settled 
principles, and advances by rule. These schools, or gymna- 
sia, or colleges, are part of the system. They take up the 
work where rudimentary instruction ends, and carry it for- 
ward to the point where liberal culture properly begins, and 
no further. They make no pretence of doing what they are 
not intended to do, and cannot do. Their aim is to train 
thorough, not superficial students; to turn out youths, who 
cannot pretend to many things, but who will really know 
what they assume to have learned, who have advanced step 
by step mastering and assimilating their knowledge as they 
progressed. Nor does any part of this training unfit the 
youth for any career in the world. None of the studies in 
this system in case the pupil does not wish to go beyond the 
school, is lost. For whatever may be said about classical 
studies by the conceited or the ignorant, it is certain that 
properly pursued, and so far as pursued they are a positive 
and an immense advantage, of real, tangible, positive use in 
after life. As the ink dripping from the pen stains the pa- 
per, leaving upon it indelibly the impress of the writer’s 
thoughts, so do these studies impress upon the mind charac- 
teristics peculiar to themselves, and tend to develope desira- 
ble qualities beyond what any other studies pursued to the 
same extent can or will. 
The classics, mathematics, the vernacular, some foreign 
tongue, and a science, chemistry or physics, in its elements, 
comprises about all that is taught; and it needs no venture 
to affirm, since experience is at hand to prove it, that a youth 
at twenty, whether he has gone through a full course or not, 22 
educated under this system, will compare advantageously, 
other things being equal, with one of the same age trained 
under any other. 
A great mistake of our day, and the error is deep and wide- 
spread, is the notion that there are no fixed, no long-settled 
principles of education, but that the mind of the youth may 
be equally well trained under differing and clashing systems 
—systems whose starting points are the unqualified negation 
one of the other. If education be, as it is, the disciplining 
and the formation of the mind, it is evident, since in the 
average minds are alike, that what is suited to one must be 
suited to another. What every one must desire is a trained 
and formed intellect; now the acquirements and the quali- 
ties which combine to produce this intellect, are precisely 
such as are desirable in any walk of life; and the question is 
simply what course of studies best serves to promote this end. 
Here is the beginning and immediate end of education; and 
to attempt to introduce into it arts, and trades, and business 
pursuits, or “ commercial education,” as it is called, or prac- 
tical education, as it is termed, is simply an absurdity. It 
would be just as sensible to attempt carpenter education, 
and shoemaker education, and so on to the end of the list of 
the thousand pursuits of men. We do not say that“ commer- 
cial education ” so termed, so far as it goes and so far as it is 
education at all, is not good; but for the most part what goes 
under this name is a pretence and a sham, one of the unreali- 
ties of the day. 
The drift of these remarks does not imply that our youths 
are to be trained only to make scholars of them when grown 
men. On the contrary, we have distinctly said that liberal 
culture is the lot of the few, and we are just now speaking 
for the many. But we have been contending that it is the 
interest of the West, to build up a class of schools, which 
meet a want, which are part of a system, which render a 
double service by instructing solidly, really educating, as far 
as they go, those who for one or other reason, do not desire 23 
to pursue their studies into the higher branches of learning, 
and at the same time putting forward those who intend to 
complete their course—a class of schools without which a 
university is an impossibility, and liberal culture unat- 
tainable. 
Nor are we condemning such schools as do the work of 
“ commercial colleges aside from their quackery and sham 
they may serve a useful purpose. But they stand apart, by 
themselves; they form no part of any system of education. 
They may be regarded in one respect as sops to Cerberus; 
they bend to the notions and flatter the prejudices of such as 
are willing to accept the shadow for the reality. 
There is a very large class of boys who are destined by 
their parents to receive simply what is called in England a 
good English education, with the addition of French or Ger- 
man ; and who, without any pretense to scholarship may, and 
often do, become well informed, well read, and as the word 
goes, well educated gentlemen. The schools, colleges or 
gymnasia, be their name as it may, of which we have just 
been speaking, will'by a course parallel to that pursued by 
those who are aiming at the highest education, serve this pur- 
pose. So far as mathematics, the study of any science, a 
foreign tongue, and the incidental studies of history and geog- 
raphy are concerned, the course should be identical.’, 
In conclusion permit me t* say, that while many good and 
faithful, earnest workers in our ranks have had very few early 
advantages, like your speaker, and some of these men have 
by dint of hard work and hard study gained respectable dis- 
tinction among their fellows, the great majority, have re- 
mained in ignorance and obscurity. If we had all enjoyed 
the opportunities that are now afforded to our young men, 
we might have been much more useful, to our patrons, and 
creditable to our profession. 
The Dentist should be a good, honest, faithful, polite, in- 
telligent, courteous man. In a word, he should be a Chris- 
tian gentleman. 24 
And finally my brothers, if I have succeeded in these re- 
marks, in inspiring you with more zeal in the cause of Den- 
tal education, or in causing any, even one single young man 
to determine that he will lay hold of the opportunities now 
afforded and make a first class Dentist of himself, by a 
thorough preparation and a faithful performance of his duties 
as a Dentist, then I have not spoken in vain ; and you have 
not given me such patient and respectful attention for 
naught.