The Chairman in responding said, gentlemen, you must have listened to my voice sufficiently to-day—this is my last appearance before you this session. Our Secretary has promised to allow me to enjoy myself, otium cum dignitate, after I have returned my best thanks. It is with great diffidence I respond to this toast, I really feel the difficulty increased tenfold by the kind manner in which you, sir, have proposed, and my friends accepted this toast. One word in regard to sub-branches—I can see no reason why such large towns as Liverpool and Manchester should not establish sub-branches; frequent meetings, say once a month, could be held for an exchange of thoughts and methods of operation in our department of Surgery, in which we are all interested; so constituted, they would be private societies, to which any member of our branch might be admitted. The great event of the next year will be the meeting of the International Medical Congress, held in London during August. This Congress has held its meetings every alternate year for the last twelve years. The London members of the Medical profession have taken it up very warmly, and are making preparations, which must result in giving the Congress such a reception as will be worthy of our capital.
The President of the Dental section is Mr. Edwin Saunders, whilst the Vice-Presidents are Mr. John Tomes, and Mr. Spence Bate, Mr. C. S. Tomes acts as Secretary, to all of whom we are much indebted for their untiring efforts in raising our department of Surgery to its present position. I trust that our branch will be well represented at this Congress.
Another subject I will broach is the establishment of a Dental School in Manchester. If such a school is formed it should be in concert with the Manchester Medical School at the New Victoria University. When the charter was first granted for the formation of a university, a medical school was not included, but there appears very little doubt that in the course of time such school will be established; let us then wait patiently until we can thoroughly and efficiently carry out such an undertaking.
I am sorry I cannot introduce you to a Dental hospital; this is to be deplored, more especially as we took a prominent part in Dental reform for the good of Dental practitioners. If younger and more able men will commence the work, they shall receive my heartiest support and co-operation. I must now conclude by expressing regret that I have not the gift of speech, that I might explain to you the warm feelings I have in regard to the reception you have given me, and the kind manner in which you have drunk my health.
Dr. D. A. Wormald sang “The Spinning Wheel.”
Dr. Wormald, in proposing “The British Dental Association,” said: Mr. President, and gentlemen, this toast is one, I am sure, you will drink with the utmost cordiality. Those who sit round this board, and have taken a part during the past few years in the politics of our profession, must experience a feeling of congratulation that we are able to meet to-night, and realize the fact that at last we occupy a recognized position. We need re-organization, and we need a central body, and the British Dental Association is that recognized body, and demands our support and assistance. Well, join that Association, and do what you can to lift up the profession from the low level in which we have been placed, and raise it to a much higher level. We need, as your President so kindly put it this afternoon, a higher professional tone, and a more generous feeling towards our brethren; and that can only be obtained by coming more and more in contact with each other, and through the influence of such an organization as this we are met to commence, which will assist in placing our profession in a position which it should long ago have occupied. Many of those who are now in our ranks may not see the full result of our labours, but depend upon this, that our labours will be recognised in the great difference which will show itself more and more in this country between those who are worthily following their calling, and those who indulge in non-professional practices. The British Dental Association will become strong and durable, and then we may be sure that under the wisdom and the guidance of those who have piloted our steps so far, we may safely follow them wherever they lead, and so lay a foundation upon which the rising generation may build up their professional career, and help to raise the status of our profession. That profession is worthy of all the time and attention that any honourable gentleman will give it, if he will follow his calling worthily, and serving the interests of a suffering public. In connection with this toast, Mr. Chairman, my friend Dr. Waite, will have the pleasure of responding, and I have the greatest pleasure in coupling his name with it.
Dr. Waite responding, said, Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, and gentlemen, it is to me both a pleasure and a pride to be permitted to respond to the toast of the “British Dental Association.” I am not much of a believer in post-prandial oratory. The period of replenishment for the physical energies, should be a period of repose for the energies intellectual, or perhaps better still, a time of refreshment, by agreeable and amusing conversation. That Englishmen should be fond of dining together, is natural and characteristic; that they should be almost equally prone to after dinner speechifying is somewhat surprising. It is well, however, when the usages imposed by custom can be observed, without making a too serious demand upon our drowsy powers, and fortunately we have a condition of things existing at the present time which, when fairly estimated, is calculated to awaken agreeable reflections, and inspire us with salutary hopes.
Within the short space of five years, events have occurred with astonishing rapidity, that have substantially and permanently altered the position of the Dental profession, not alone in its relation to the general public, but also in its internal organisation, and the mutual relation of individuals to the whole body. These events may be classified in three distinct items, and in each we shall find elements of progress largely preponderating. First of all, most of you will recall the feeling which prevailed when the idea of obtaining an Act of Parliament was invoked at the Manchester meeting of 1875—it was not regarded exactly as an utopian idea, but certainly we felt it to be something almost too good to hope for. Well, in less than three years from that time the Dentists Act was passed, and now, after two years experience and consideration, we are able to discover what it is we have obtained, though it is all too soon as yet, to realise (except very partially) the practical benefits the Act is destined to confer. This much, however, we know. We have a legal status. We have legal rights and privileges. We are admitted to the fellowship of the honourable and learned professions. These three points are assured, and we should see to it, that we interpose no barrier of professional character or conduct between ourselves and the privileges our Act bestows. We know, moreover, that there are secured for those who will come after us, more substantial benefits of education, of practice, of public appreciation, such as none of us have been permitted to enjoy. This is the characteristic feature of the Dentists Act. Its noblest provisions are for posterity. No change, nor circumstance, can deprive any who have assisted in passing this Act, of the pure satisfaction of knowing that they have helped to hand on the profession of Dental Surgery in a far better condition than that in which they received it. Many have contributed in various ways, whose share in the work will be forgotten, but the work remains. Identified with the whole of the movement, the names of Tomes and Turner will be preserved and revered for many, many years, yet withal the abundant reasons for personal gratification which those gentlemen have, I am sure they rejoice a thousand fold more over the results achieved, than they do at any honour or advantage accruing to themselves. Take it as it stands, acknowledging its few imperfections, and recognising its many decided benefits, we have as good an Act as we had any right to expect, and as good as it was possible for us to get.
One of the hindrances to Dental advancement has hitherto been the scarcity of educational facilities, and the small proportion of practitioners who possessed any Dental qualification. At the time to which reference has already been made, there were only some 300 gentlemen in the whole of Great Britain who held a Dental diploma. There was only one licensing body in the country which granted Dental certificates. Now we have 630 gentlemen holding recognised Dental qualifications, viz., of London about 400, Edinburgh 16, Dublin 180, Glasgow 33, and the three last mentioned bodies are offering to gentlemen in practice, the opportunity of examination, sine curriculo, upon thoroughly reasonable and accessible terms. Not only so, the Colleges of Ireland and Scotland have caused their certificates to possess a peculiar value, in the careful provision they have made, for preventing unprofessional practices on the part of their licentiates.
I am certainly astonished that the number of practitioners who have already availed themselves of these facilities is so small. I know that this matter of obtaining a Qualification is regarded variously by different persons, but nothing is more certain than the growing tendency toward accredited qualification as indispensable to professional status; the public are rapidly becoming aware (and it is our business to educate the public in this matter) that the operations of Dental Surgery cannot be safely entrusted to uneducated heads or hands, and as a guarantee of something like the necessary knowledge and skill, the public are beginning to understand the value of a purely Dental Qualification. The larger the number of Licentiates the more quickly the public will be taught, and ere long the unqualified Dentist will become a mere historic fact.