president's address. 11 



Memorial contained only a suggestion for the con- 

 sideration of the members of the Council of the 

 College which, if entertained by them, will be sub- 

 mitted for the approval of our profession. Circum- 

 stances, however, connected with medical poHtics 

 have hitherto prevented the College of Surgeons 

 from giving a definite reply to this requisition ; but 

 I believe I may say that the subject is favourably 

 entertained by many, if not by most, of the mem- 

 bers of the Council. No other feeling guided those 

 who prepared and signed this Memorial than an 

 earnest desire to benefit their profession, and a 

 sincere conviction that a recognised connexion with 

 the College of Surgeons is best calculated to raise 

 the status of the dentist to an equaUty with other 

 medical practitioners, and rescue our profession from 

 the anomalous position it has hitherto held. 



It is my opinion that any attempt to separate 

 dental surgery from the profession of surgery, in 

 reference to the future education of members of our 

 profession, is impolitic in the extreme. By allying 

 ourselves to the parent institution, the College of 

 Surgeons, we must hold a proper position as pro- 

 fessional men, while our status, I think, could not 

 but be lowered by any scheme which involves a 

 voluntary separation from that body. 



The members of the dental profession have 

 hitherto kept aloof from one another, and retained 

 in exclusiveness the modes and peculiarities of 

 private practice. The want of a point of union 



