president's address. 9 



knowledge has progressed greatly during that 

 period. Not only in the metropolis have numbers 

 increased, and has the character of the dentist im- 

 proved, both as regards operative and mechanical 

 practice and mental cultivation, but the same 

 influences have extended throughout the country, 

 there being in every town of any note a dentist 

 established; and we find there also, to a con- 

 siderable extent, the same upward progress in pro- 

 fessional knowledge. 



But while, in a large class of practitioners, the 

 educational acquirements are all that can be desired, 

 it cannot but be felt that in another, and a large class 

 too, the standard of education is calculated to form 

 merely a successful artisan; and, consequently, 

 there are two distinct bodies of practitioners — the 

 one practising dentistry as a profession, the other 

 carrying it on as a trade or business. 



It cannot be doubted that a liberal education is 

 of the greatest advantage to those engaged in 

 practice ; and the more education is extended in all 

 ranks of society, the more it becomes necessary that 

 the members of our profession qualify themselves as 

 highly as they can ; for those who employ the ser- 

 vices of the dentist in these days have a right to 

 look, and do look, to the qualifications of the mind, 

 as well as to the mechanical adroitness of the 

 fingers. 



Dental surgery is in itself a well-defined spe- 

 cialty ; but in its present state in this country, there 



