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

Page 24 text:

Over twenty-two hundred graduates have gone from this College into practice, and these are scattered all over the civilized world. They are located in nearly every city of Europe. They lead the profession in all the great centres of civilization and have won eminence in England, France, Russia, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. They have carried the honors of the institution into Asia, Australia, and the land of the pyramids, while in every State of our Republic, and in all qarts of Canada they have demonstrated their own worth and the excellent training afforded them by their Alma Mater. They have met with signal honor abroad, nearly every court dentist in Europe being a graduate of tfiis institution. Such in brief is the history of our dear old College, our beloved Alma Mater, where we are now seeking a training which will not only bring distinction to, and benefit us personally, but which shall instil nobler ideas into our minds, and so broaden our characters, that we may become better citizens, and better able to fill our allotted place in life, whatever it may be. And may we ever prove an honor to the calling in which we are about to engage, and to our best friend, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. i6

Page 23 text:

The practical inauguration of the new college presented a difficulty well known in America, when professors often outnumbered students. At length five legitimate students of dentistry were found to covet the honor of the new title D. D. S., and the first course of instruction was given in the winter of J 840-4 1. The didactic lectures were delivered in a small room, publicly situated, but the teachings of practical anatomy demanded privacy, and other prudental considerations also suggested the use for that purpose of a secluded stable loft, the prejudice of the com- munity against dissection having shown itself some years before. Dr. Bond, in his valedictory to the graduates, at its first commencement exercises, March, J 84 1, says: You have been taught that dental surgery is not a new art separate from, and indeqendent of, general medicine; but that it is an important branch of the science of healing. You have seen and traced cu t the exquisitely beautiful machinery by which the human organism is everywhere knit together; you have carefully examined the phenomena of health and disease, as they are manifested in the dental arch, its connections and relations, and you have been taught to regard the human body as a whole, united in all its parts, and pervaded everywhere by strong and active sympathies; and your principles of practice have been carefully formed on a sound knowledge of general medicine and it is therefore that you must be thoroughly educated in the fundamental branches of medicine as the medical man himself. The college was organized with the design of teaching dentistry as a regular branch of medicine, and in order to denote the phenomenal progress of the old Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, start at the time of its birth; when there were about 1200 practitioners of dentistry in America, more than one-half of whom were ignorant, incapable men, whose knowledge was composed of a few secrets which they had purchased at fabulous prices from other char- latans, and who considered three or four weeks ample time in which to attain all the knowledge necessary to the successful pursuit of the calling, and contrast the requirements of that time with those of the present day. This is the sixty-third year of the career of the College with its prospects for usefulness brighter than ever. It has added to its faculty and clinical corps strong and active men, and is better equipped to carry out the purpose of its inception than at any period of its existence. The results of its work in sixty-three years are world-wide in their influence upon dentistry. IS

Page 25 text:

Coming Z vents Cast Their Shadows Before. i OUR life at college, your work and your play, your success and your failures, your courtesy, your appli- cation and devotion to duties, is the hand-writing on the wall that foretells your history. When you begin the study of a profession, you become a member of the calling you have chosen, and it rests with you how important a part you are to play in it. Some one must come to the front every day to take the places of those whose labors are ended. The men to whom you have looked for aid and encouragement, who by their ability and integrity have achieved prominence, the men whom you delight to honor, and whose memory you will cherish, are passing away. The greatest honor you can show them is so to live that you can worthily take their places. How can you deserve that dis- tinction? Study the lives and life-work of the foremost men of any profession, follow them through their early strug- gles, note the motives that inspired them. They began their studies as freshmen, as you did, they labored under the same difficulties that beset you. Indeed, the facilities and surroundings attending the pursuit of knowledge have vastly improved since they were students. The Royal Road is made easier every year, and it was their hard knocks that have to so great an extent smoothed your way. Obstacles to be over-come acted as stimuli. The pride of achievement was theirs; the ardent desire and determination to make the most of every opportunity inspired them. They were careful to give their best efforts to the smallest matter; no detail was over-looked. Above and before every bther consideration, they were honest. Honest to themselves, to their fellow students, to their teachers. No one can reach greatness and honor unless his integrity is above suspicion. With many such ex- amples before you, let no one be discouraged: Quit yourselves like men. Freshman, Junior, or Senior, apply yourself with diligence: do well the work in hand. There is within you the possibility of great men. Nourish that ambition and strive honorably to attain success in your profession and a warm place in the hearts of your friends. 17