The President then delivered his address, and said:—
Gentlemen,—It is my pleasing duty in the first place to thank you, not only for the kindness you have shown in electing me to the responsible position of President of your Branch, but also for having given me the honour of being the First President of the First Branch of the British Dental Association.
I need scarcely say that the fact of our meeting here to-day as we are now doing is a subject for congratulation, and the presence of so many, and the distance some of you have come, proves the interest you take in the great movement of the day, which has called into existence the central Society of which we now form a branch.
Every new movement is sure to give rise to more or less excitement and sometimes to great expectations, and I must, therefore, beg, first for myself, your kind forbearance for my numerous shortcomings, of which I am only too conscious; and secondly, for your society I must also ask your kind consideration, if at the first it seems to you scarcely to come up to the high standard of your anticipations, requesting you to remember that it is still in its infancy, that it has commenced its existence under difficulties, and I regret to say, not without some opposition. It will, therefore, require care and energy, not only on the part of the Executive body, but also in each individual member, to bring it to that state of maturity we all are anxious to see it attain. I feel certain from your presence here to-day that you have the interest of the Society at heart, but I venture to remind you that the simply feeling an interest in a thing is not sufficient in itself to command success. That is a result which requires, especially in these days, both energy and labour, and we must never forget that our future position and progress as a Society, will mainly depend on our own individual efforts, since we are each of us an individual unit, the aggregate of which units forms the Society itself.
It would be natural for you to expect in this, the first introductory paper, a history of the origin and objects of the Society, but these were so ably treated of by the worthy Secretary of the Society on his visit to Manchester, and so many of you were present at the London meetings, and so much has been already written on the subject, that it would not only be superfluous but also presumptuous for me to attempt what has already been done by others so much more competent than myself, and I am therefore deprived of what would have been an interesting topic for an address; but although the past and the present have thus been taken from me, there still remains the future; and as I hope that in that future our Midland branch will ultimately form a not unimportant unit, I will therefore restrict what I have to say mainly to the subject of the branch itself, and in doing so must crave your kind indulgence for the many imperfections in my efforts, urging as my excuse the little time that numerous professional and other engagements leave at my disposal.
Here, I think, we may congratulate ourselves, that we exist as a branch of the British Dental Association and not as an independent Society, for I am sure we all feel that the scheme for the elevation of our profession to its proper position, which that Society has been formed to promote, has been most judiciously planned, and has thus far been most efficiently carried out—a scheme, which whilst it in no way discourages the attainment of the higher qualification of full membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, in those who are anxious to distinguish themselves, and possess the means and opportunity for so doing, provides an efficient education in all those scientific and practical subjects which it is necessary for a Dentist to know, and by means of the Dental Diploma, affords the public a guarantee that the possessor of that diploma has passed through a curriculum of such a standard as fully to qualify him for the practice of the branch of surgery which he professes. Nor must we allow to pass unnoticed the utter unselfishness of its promoters, who laboured out of pure love for their profession, knowing that they could never expect to see the good result of their labours in their lifetime, unlike the man who is said to have remarked that he never could see the good posterity had done for him that he need trouble himself about posterity: and as was the case with many of those grand memorials of the loving zeal and devotion of our ancestors, those noble cathedrals with which so many parts of our country are adorned, one generation was satisfied if they were able to lay the foundations and were permitted to see some portion of the superstructure erected during their lifetime, so in like manner, we must wait and not be discouraged if we are unable to see the full development of the present movement, but should consider it a privilege to be permitted to assist in however humble a degree, in taking part in what we fondly and reasonably hope will prove the formation of a grand future for our branch of surgery.
To our Secretary and Treasurer are due, I believe, the credit of having originated the branch, and I take this opportunity of saying that I am unable in any way to claim a portion of that credit for myself, for I gather from a letter in one of the journals, that I was not only believed to have been one of the promoters, but that I was thought to have been guilty of an act of discourtesy in what I had done, or rather in what I had not done. I knew nothing of the project till I received a printed circular inviting my co-operation, and it was not till after the lapse of many weeks that I found myself able to join in the scheme. The promoters worked hard in drafting the bye-laws and arranging the other necessary preliminaries, but I am sure I may say for them that they feel amply rewarded by seeing their pet child, over which they have laboured so long, fully recognised as a legitimate offspring of the British Dental Association.
The objects of the branch, you see by the bye-laws, are fourfold:—
1. To render assistance, as far as possible, in carrying out the provisions of the Dentists Act.
2. The general consideration of subjects affecting the interests of the profession.