PROGRESS OF DENTISTRY 439 



desire to beeomo a dentist was all that was necessaiy. The 

 student could take up the course of instruction regardless of 

 his previous training. The great benefits accruing to the den- 

 tist from this meager course of instruction were so manifest 

 that the organization of other dental colleges followed rapidly, 

 and for many years thereafter various colleges worked along 

 independent lines. But although much good work was being 

 done, there was a lack of harmony among the schools and a 

 great difference in their course of instruction, and some rivalry 

 between them, which was detrimental to the best interests of 

 the student, and it was not until the year 1884, when the organ- 

 ization of the national association of dental college faculties 

 was perfected, that dental education was placed upon the 

 sound foundation and given the systematic method of instruc- j 

 tion which has prevailed since that time. 



The course of instruction in our dental colleges to-day 

 embraces the following theoretical subjects: Anatomy, in- 

 cluding the dissection of the entire body; physiology, almost as 

 complete a course as that given in the first class medical col- 

 leges; bacteriology, including the laboratory course of practical 

 experiments; chemistry, pathology and surgical pathology; 

 physiology, diagnosis, materia medica and therapeutics, oral 

 surgery and orthodontia, while the subjects of operative and 

 prosthetic dentistry, of course, receive the most attention. 

 The method of teaching has become so fully systematized that 

 a student who has received one course of instruction in one 

 college can with but little difficulty continue the work in some 

 other school. 



Where mechanics enter so largely into the work of the 

 professional man as in dentistry, it will be readily seen that 

 the course of instruction must be specially directed towards 

 the training of the hand and the eye, and the development of 

 skill in the use of instruments. In oi'der to bring about the 

 best development along this line, the colleges of the association 

 organized a special school of dental technics, and by consulta- 

 tion and exchange of ideas, developed a course of instruction 

 in which the first year student in a dental college spends almost 

 one half of his time in the making of instruments, the operating 

 upon and the studying of human teeth, carving from blocks of 



