THE DENTAL JOURNAL

Published Under the Auspices of the Dental Soelety of the University of Michigan.

VOL. VII.

JULY, 1898.

NO. 4.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

R. J. ROPER.

This is a time when pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. are so strangely intermingled that it is hard to tell which sentiment. predominates. The pleasure and pride which we feel at having completed our college course are overshadowed by the regret that the happy associations and pleasant fellowship which that course has brought must end with its completion.

In no other department on the campus, I think, are the members brought into such close relationship as they are in this. From the first day in the Freshman laboratory to the last day in the operating room they are brought in contact with each other nearly every hour in the day, and no fifty or sixty people with one aim, one hope, one ambiton and one end, can be so associated for three years and not form friendships which are as true and deep and lasting as the historical friendship of Damon and Pythias.

It seems that this has been particularly true of the class of '98, and I cannot but think that the pleasure and profit which we have derived from each other's company will always be one of our most pleasant recollections, and in after years as we look back upon our college course in Ann Arbor the members of our class will troop past, and we will say, "There is the best crowd of fellows I ever met."

I feel that my interests in the class are double. It has been my privilege and honor to be President of this class for the last two years, and now at this, the last meeting of the class,

I find it hard to express my thanks for the almost universal kindness which has been shown me, and for the support which has been given me over rough places. Of course there have been class differences and misunderstandings, but all these are completely engulfed by the feelings of personal friendship existing among the members of the class. During our entire college course there has been a harmony rarely found in a class of this size where men are, as you might say, accidentally thrown together, and now comes the end. Yet is it the end? The end of our personal association, it is true, and many of us will undoubtedly never meet again, but the friendship and love which have sprung up among us are unchangeable, and have, like our life as actors in the busy circles of the world, only commenced.

It is a great pleasure to me to see so many of our friends here today, and for the class I thank you for the interest you have taken in our welfare. Your presence here today will serve as an impetus to us, and as we start on our professional career the thought that so many of our friends are watching us will urge us on to greater efforts for success. We realize that our first few years will be watched with great interest by our friends, and our success will mean as great pleasure to them as it will be satisfaction and pride to ourselves. We feel that with so many eyes upon us we cannot fail, and our hopes and intentions are that no one who has our welfare at heart shall ever be disappointed.

Our faculty also watch us with much interest, for they know our ability better than we do ourselves, and are naturally curious to know whether we fulfill whatever of promise we may have shown while under their direction. They should have a large share of the credit for any success to which we may attain, and our failure may not be due to any lack of training, or advice, or council while here in college. We will ever remember their kindness and courtesy to us at all times, and in striving for success we will be pleased to know that we are fulfilling their hopes for us, and by standing at the head of the profes sion we can best repay them for all the help they have given us here. What our future will be, who can say? All now depends on ourselves. Up to this time we have been helped, our course

has been mapped out, our steps directed and our path smoothened by our friends, but from now on all will be changed. The pleasant, smooth sailing of college life with some one always at the helm to steer us through bad places is behind us, and we must now face the rough sea of life and take the rudder in our own hands.

But two courses are open to us: One to press forward to the success for which our training here has prepared us; the other to drift and eventually be drawn back upon the stormy shores of failure. I think it is the intention of every member of the class to make the success which faithful work will surely bring, and I know that failure is impossible if we will always keep in mind the closing words of Dr. Watlings's last lecture, "Always remember that you are graduates of the University of Michigan."

HISTORY OF CLASS OF '98.

BY R. B. HOWELL.

The writing of a general history is a most difficult undertaking, it requires the most careful and correct judgement. For all past important events there has followed one who could meet the demands with a true protrayal of all facts, but never, in the mind of the present humble historian, has there been such a stupendous task before him.

No doubt a good many may think it a comparatively easy matter to write a class history, well, perhaps it is when we deal with an ordinary class, but when one attempts to do justice to the class of '98, he will necessarily approach the subject in fear and humiliation.

The class has been so brilliant, the steps of its onward course so wide, that although Conley and others have made liberal offer for personal mention, it will be necessary, much to the regret of the historian, to give to the world the many triumphs and few disasters of the class as a whole. How could we tell all of such a body as Merchant? Or how could we draw a picture of several of the boys' conquests in Ypsilanti, or how could we imagine such endurance as possessed by the only lady graduate, which has enabled her to leave the college with one of the best

records of the class. In fact in looking over its past history you will readily see that nothing remains to the historian but an invention of such mild facts as the public would expect from an ordinary class, it would hardly be hoped that any one would listen to its true relation.

It was necessary to seek from Canada at the north to West Virginia at the south, Rhode Island at the east and California at the west to find material for this class and only one foreigner was so successful as to enter and graduate with it.

The class of '98 first appeared on the earth in 1857, and caries of the teeth and orthodontia trembled at its birth. The investigations of the first being satisfactory, they continued to appear in regular installments up to 1877. The days of childhood passed rapidly and were without doubt brilliant. From here we loose sight of them until first of all we see them as Freshmen, like many another Senior has been.

THEIR CONFESSION.

1895 is a year long to be remembered by most of them (and it hopes by the Faculty) for it was in the early days of October of this year that they gathered, these 64 students, thoroughly aroused to the sense of their importance, and all ready to try their luck at the hands of the various professors.

They were full of ambition and although a few had this thoroughly satisfied at the end of the first semester, yet the majority have today the complete fulfilment of their desire.

They probably possessed the average amount of Fresh verdancy, but nevertheless we like to look on them as not being quite so green as the average Freshmen class, although one did think the Student's Christian Association building to be the University Gymnasium, and another the High School to be the University, they were very easy mistakes to make and did not prove the greenness of the boys, but was simply an expression of their early regard for the architecture in this their college home.

The first week was one of excitement, after holding what might be termed a pecuniary interview with Messrs. Bigelow and Bush, the proprietors of the Dental Depots, the students could be seen bringing in baskets full of the necessary instruments for their Freshman Laboratory work. After depositing and thor

oughly arranging these instruments in their respective desks, the next thing was to look around and make the acquaintance of their bench mates, this being accomplished we glance further around the room and away off in one corner and at the extreme end of the Freshmen Laboratory could be seen three young ladies, this situation evidently having been forced upon them through their bashfulness, but nevertheless that corner proved to be the center of the Laboratory for the greater part of the Freshman year and you can imagine how their gentleman bench mates were envied.

The initiation into their work occured one morning in this room, it being the occasion of the first lecture in General Chemistry. A few were fortunate enough to possess advanced credit, but to those who had no such luck will long be remembered the pet questions of Mr. Lichty. What is Bleaching Powder, how made and how used? again,-Give a short and concise comparison of the members of the Halogen family, their chemical and physical properties.

Another course which required a good amount of their attention in the first semester was Osteology, this being the commencement of their association with the Medics. It was in a class one morning in this course that a new name for that portion of the arch of the vertebrae which connects the body with the lamina, was evolved from the brain of one of their progressing mates. He, in much the same manner as that eccentric character of fiction, Pud'nhead Wilson, gained and has since been known under the non de plume of "Peduncle."

The other morning lecture was given by Dr. Dorrance on Prosthetic Denistry, but it did not occur so frequently as to require work each night.

Any one wishing to know how these students occupied their afternoons would have been thoroughly acquainted with all facts had they but stepped into the laboratory, no doubt a curious sight would have attracted their attention, but whether it was a novice's method of taking a plaster impression or the soldering of a brassplate, they were simply attempting to carry out the instructions as given by Dr. Haidle, in his demonstrations, which came three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at one o'clock.