l practice, more progress would be made against dental
malpractice.

Dental clinics will quickly follow the publication of facts that
schools should gather. In some places these should be separate; but at
first the best thing is to make every hospital, every children's home,
every settlement a clinic, and every school an examining center. A
skilled dentist informs me: "The demand that will follow examination of
school children's teeth will make it profitable for young dentists to
adopt a cooeperative scheme, where several young men hire a parlor in a
cheap district, and, under the supervision of some experienced dentist,
give good advice at reasonable rates. This is the best antidote to the
dental parlor which exploits the public so shamelessly." Bellevue
Hospital in New York is the first general hospital to establish regular
dental examination; others will undoubtedly soon follow.

Dental education for profit rather than for instruction and for health
has been the rule. Even where universities have put in dental courses,
they have demanded a net profit from tuition. Instead of protecting
society against men incapable of caring for teeth, the schools have
marketed certificates to as large numbers as slowly enlightened
self-interest would permit. Much progress has been made toward uniform
standards of admission and graduation, but dental colleges sadly need
the light and the inspiration of school facts about teeth.

Of fourteen dental journals in America, only one has the advancement of
dental science as its first reason for existence. Thirteen are trade
journals. Not one of these would print articles proving that the
supplies advertised by their backers were inimical to dental hygiene.
Many dental colleges still retain on their faculties agents or editors
in the pay of supply houses, Harvard's new dental school being a
notable exception. This trade motive tolerates and encourages the
disreputable practices of existing dental parlors. Largely because of
this prostitution of the dental profession, patients generally neglect
the repairing and cleansing of the teeth and the sterilizing of the
mouth from which germs are carried to all parts of the body. Dental
journalism for the sale of supplies cannot outlive the dentist's
reading of the school's index.

Many dentists will say that they must learn dentistry before they learn
the economics and sociology of clean teeth. Being a young profession,
it is natural that dentist