ry should first devote itself to learning its
own mechanics,--the tricks of the trade--how to fill teeth. But the
fact that it took the medical profession centuries to begin to feel
responsibility for community health is no reason why the social sense
of the dentist should be dormant for centuries or decades. We need
training and exercise to determine what kind of filling will be most
comfortable and most serviceable; whether the pulp of the teeth needs
treating or removing before the filling is inserted; whether it is
worth while to fill a deciduous or baby tooth. Sociology will never
take the place of dental technic. The few dentists who have studied the
social significance and social responsibility of their profession
declare, however, that careless workmanship and indifferent education
of patients continue chiefly because dentists themselves do not see the
community's interest in dental hygiene. The school can socialize or
humanize the dental profession if teachers themselves possess the
social sense and make known the facts about the need for dental care
among school children.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] _The Teeth and Their Care_, by Thaddeus P. Hyatt, D.D.S., is a
short, concise treatment of the principles of dental sanitation.

CHAPTER X

ABNORMALLY BRIGHT CHILDREN

What is commonly considered abnormal brightness in a school child is
often a tendency to live an abnormal physical life. Being a child
bookworm means that time is spent indoors that should be spent playing
games with one's fellows. Excellence in the activities of children, not
ability to imitate the activities of adults, should be the test of
child brightness. To be able to hit a bull's-eye, to throw a ball
accurately, to calculate the swing of a curve or the bound of a
"grounder," these are tests of brightness quite as indicative of mental
power as the ability to win highest marks in school, while less
injurious to physical power. The child who is abnormally bright
requires special treatment just as much as the child who is abnormally
dull. The former as well as the latter must have his abnormal condition
corrected if he is to grow into a normally bright man.

The college man who sacrifices health to "marks" is thus described by
the director of physical training at Harvard University:

A drooping head, a pale face, dull, sunken eyes, flat chest and
rounded shoulders, with emaciated limbs, soft flabby muscles, and
general lack of good phy