University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 26 text:

Valedictory Address To the Graduates of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Delivered at the Commencement, March 9, 1841 by Thomas E. Bond, Jr., M.D. You are aware that the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery went into operation under very discouraging circumstances. The difficulty of the undertaking is abundantly proved by the remark- able fact that, notwithstanding the necessity of scientific education in Dental Surgery had long been felt, and the difficulty of procur- ing it bitterly lamented, no attempt had been made to afford col- legiate opportunities to pupils in the art, until the faculty of the present school risked the adventure. It is unnecessary now to enter upon a minute detail of the causes which rendered success im- probable. Suffice it to say that the projectors of the school bad abundant reason to anticipate open hostility from many, and secret enmity from more. For this, however, they cared but little; but they feared that which is far worse than opposition, the entire in- difference of the community to the result of the enterprise. principles of practice have been carefully formed upon a second knowledge of general medicine. To sustain us against the opposition of our enemies, and the terrible vis inertiae of tlie public mind, we relied chiefly upon the support of those Dental Surgeons whose approbation is most hon- orable, and whose influence is most efficient. In this we have not been disappointed. On the contrary, we have been encouraged, and cheered on by the countenance and sympathy of the most skilful and distinguished of the profession on both sides of the Atlantic. To the medical profession, too, we are happy to acknowl- edge ourselves under great obligations. From the first, they have been our warm and zealous friends. They have despised the pitiful jealousy, so often and so falsely attributed to them, and everywhere in every way, they have promoted the success of our infant enter- prise. Your appearance here to receive from us the strongest testimonial of professional qualifications that has ever been bestowed upon a Dental Surgeon, is sufficient evidence that you have not attended in vain to the instructions we have endeavored to impart. After having admitted you to the honor of a degree — an honor the dis- pensation of which has been committed to us by the State of Mary- land, and which we are bound in good faith to bestow upon none but those who deserve it, it would be supererogatory to expatiate upon the confidence we have in your ability to give credit to the institution that presents you to the world as its first fruits. We can add nothing to the solemnity of the act by which we have recommended you to the confidence of the community; nor indeed is any additional commendation necessary. Wherever you go, whether in Europe or America, the diploma you hold in your hands will be a passport to public consideration, and an abundant introduc- tion to usefulness. You have been tau;rht that Dental Surgerv is not a mere art separate from, and independent of, general medicine; but that it is an important branch of the science of cure. Inquiry into the diseases of the antrum alone was sufficient to convince you that the teeth and their dependencies are often primarily interested in the production and aggravation of some of the most fearful and fatal of human disorders; and you have at once been compelled to discard the miserable fallacy, that the teeth are mere supernumer- ary organs, not at all concerned in the general health, and capable of being maltreated at the pleasure of ignorance, without inducing serious results. Your knowledge has been based upon extensive and accurate ana- tomical investigation. You have seen and traced out the exquisitely beiutiful machinery by which the organism Is everywhere knit together. You have learned the secrets of nervous communication, and studied the simple yet admirable arrangement by which nutri- tion is drawn by each part from the common receptacle of stren- th. You have also carefully examined the phenomena of health and dis- ease, both as they are manifested in the dental arch, its connexions and relations. Your attention has been particularly directed to the effect of local irritation upon the general health, and you have seen how readily organs apparently unconnected, and Independent may be Involved in mutual disease. You have been taught to regard the human body as one complete whole, united in all its parts, and pervaded every where by strong and active sympathies; and your Gentlemen, you are now members of a useful and honorable pro- fession. You go forth to the world with hig!i testimonials of char- acter and skill; and we have a right to expect from you such con- duct as will reflect honor upon us and upon the profession you represent. A greater than ordinary responsibility rests upon you. Under any circumstances the honor and dignity of any profession is Intimately connected with the deportment of each of its mem- bers; and that man is a traitor to his brethren, and a libeller of his class, who by his negligence or vice, degrades the pursuit or the profession in which he is engaged. But the circumstances under which you commence your career are of rare occurrence, and involve you in responsibility which seldom falls to the share of two young men. This day, for the first time in the history of the world, the practice of dentistry is legally recognized as a profession, and you are the first who are permitted by public authority to be distinguished by the title of Doctor of Dental Surgery. As soon as you go out In the world, the very title you bear will subject you to scrutiny, as close as jealousy and envy can institute. Your conduct will be subjected to the most microscopic investigati on, and your errors magnified and multiplied by all the appliances of scandal. You will require more than ordinary virtue and circumspection to enable you to sustain the trial, but should you fall under it you may inflict irremediable injury upon the profession you have chosen, and which is now strugt ling for a dignified position In the public estimation. Let me beg then that from the very first you will assume a dig- nified stand, and that you will religiously maintain it. Arm your- selves with a fixed determination to do honor to the title you bear — to give it honor In the eyes of all men, and to force even the most invidious to respect it. Your titular distinction is founded upon admitted superiority of knowledge; but you must remember that it will require continual diligence to maintain that superiority. The science of medicine is ever improving — hundreds of active and Intelligent minds will soon be devoted to the improvement of that branch of the healing art to which your attention will be chiefly directed; and unless you continually add to your present stock of information, you will soon find yourselves distanced by those who are now but tyros in knowl- edge compared with you. The expression — I have finished my education, does well enough for the finished gentleman and gentle- woman in their teens, who have learned science by questions and answers in boarding schools; but It is the height of folly for the student to talk of having learned enough. To him, every acqui- sition in knowledge is but the threshold of higher attainments; and when he is looked upon by others as wise, he feels that he has learned but the rudiments of wisdom. Be diligent, then, both to acquire information, and to Impart it; feelin g It to be your boun- den duty, as well as your pleasure, to contribute what you can to the improvement and dignity of the profession you have assumed. The profession you have chosen is not to be regarded merely as the means of your employment and creditable subsistence. It Is to be the means of your mental and moral discipline — the mode of your probation — the form of your accountability. If you regard it as a mere worldly occupation, and enter upon it in the spirit of fallen self-love which men call selfishness, and which is the great antagonist sin, that everywhere opposes Itself to Divine Benevolence. You will find it a pursuit full of vexation and dissatisfaction and disgust, as a successful fraud upon your happiness. But if you enter upon it with cheerfulness as the way in which you are to employ your talents and your time — under the direction of God, to the good of yourselves and others, and especially to the glory of Him to whom time and talents belong — you will not fall to find in the practice of your profession a fund of enjoyment which will increase with the effort of every day. Page Twen y-iwo

Page 25 text:

dure was taken in l ' J] in the This pic old dental school, a huilding now occu- pied by the medical school, located di- rectly across the street from our present school building. We see the Clinic as it was then, a year in which most of the 100th graduating class were but gleams in ihc eyes of their parents. A little be- low the center stands Dr. A. H. Patcrson, who is now our Professor of Prosthetics and Crown and Jiridge, and who at this time was a Senior. To the right is the old-fashioned roller towel, far from clean, which evcrycne made use of — sometimes. Foot engines and chandeliers for gas illumination can also be seen. This is also a view of the clinic in the old building, as it was in 1923. The gas fixtures have given away to electric lights, but we still can see the foot- engines for the handpieces. In the right foreground is a demonstrator ' s desk, where restorative work was done; it seems there was no separate clinic for this kind of work. Notice the beaver hats on some of the children. This is the Children ' s Clinic in the old building, also taken about 1923. Dean T. O. Heatwole can be seen at the left center, and Dr. O. H. Gaver, then direc- tor of the Clinic, in the center. To the right, with arms folded, is Dr. A. Y. Russell, and in the white gown at the far right is cne who very much resem- bles Dr. Gravson W. Gaver. Pjgt ' Tucnty-oite

Page 27 text:

Sm)NI. i Al.iiUI) I ' jl I INKOI I Bel : K A Wccli.iwkcn, New jc-rscy University of Michigan, B.S. Class, Vice-President, ' 40; Histo- rian of Sigma Epsilon Delta, ' 39. ' 8 John Tandy Bonham John ] Q, I A ® Charleston, West Virginia University of West Virginia, B.A. Class Secretary, ' 37; Mirror Staff, ' 38- ' 39; Associate Editor, ' 40; loiinml Staff, ' 38- 39. Grand Master of Psi Omega, ' 40; Class Vice-President, ' 3 9; President of Gorgas Odontological Society, ' 40. Julian Barnet Bookstaver Booky SEA Teaneck, New Jersey New York University Class Secretary, ' 40; Gorgas Odon- tological Society, ' 39- ' 40. Pjgc Tumty-thrci