Introductory address delivered at the opening of the second session of the Metropolitan School of Dental Science.

  • James Robinson
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered at the opening of the second session of the Metropolitan School of Dental Science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL OF DENTAL SCIENCE. Gentlemen, Wo have met to-day for the pnqxtse of opening the Second Ses- sion of the Metropolitan School of Dental Science. Tliere are not wanting those who have qnestionetl the utility and the wisdom of these annual addresses. Thus much may, at least, be said in their favour, that as no other mode of opening the Medical Session has been adopted, it is fair to presume that no better has hitherto been devised. I believe, however, that the custom has other advantages besides those which are merely negative. There is probably no other occasion throughout the session upon which we are all assembled together, the students on the one hand, the lecturers on the other. There is no other opportunity when we can speak to you, as it were, with one voice ; that we bid those welcome whose faces are familiar to us ; or that we can say to those whom we may now see for the first time, that it will be our earnest endeavour so to teach them, so to work with them, that when they leave us to enter upon the active duties of their Profession, they may ]»osses3 a thorough knowledge of those principles which should guide them iu practice. It is the only time when your studies can be spoken of collectively, that the bearing which they have upon each other can be j)biced before you, and the necessity of attending to them all can be impressed upon your minds. When this address shall have been delivered, and each lecturer shall have entered upon the subject-matter of his special course of lectures, the harmony and connection which exist between the dilfei'ent subjects are too apt to be lost sight of in the mul- tiplicity of details which you will have to learn. We have most of us a greater inclination for certain studies than for others ; and it not un- fi-eipiently happens that even the industrious student, folloAving in this resjject the bent of his own mind, cultivates his favourite study at the expense of others which he has less inclination to. It is, however, a great mistake, and one which the very ambition to excel in certain subjects tends to encourage. It should be the endeavour of the student thoroughly to ground MmseK in all those sciences which are essential to B