DENTAL EXAMINATIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12602, 4 March 1903, Page 3

DENTAL EXAMINATIONS.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—Much as your correspondent " Spider" may wish to smother, adverse criticism, imputing exaggeration to just awl temperate statements like " Cobweb's," and wish to bolster up thcEe examinations, it seems to me that tho undignified and discreditable attitude of dentistry toward them and its iit-tei alionation as ft body from them and their work, in point of responsibility and confidence—indeed, how distressfully the interests of both profession and the public charge increasingly suffer under their maladroit, to call it by no worse namo, ministrations— need to be straiglitly put before tho ppblio •eye if that constraining is to bo applied to make the dentists tako up their common, obligations by combining and seeing, among other urgent matters, to tho right custody and conduct of these examinations. "Weakly as tho silly fly may havo yielded to capture, it is a. little too much to expect it to say it likes the proccss of its own despoiling and ididoing. . When the misnamed Amendment Act of 1891 displaced the University Seinato in its authority and control over these examinations, it might have been supposed that the dentists themselves, tlirough their organisation, wero taking over the charge, and would for the future administer them direot, or with such other intervention as they cared to invoke to their aid, as more oonduoive to tho important ends- they served, appointing theirrepresentativo men as examiners in dentistry proper, after the fashion of the chemists. That this was not the case is proved by the Dental Association getting its_ death-blow from this very amendment, dying with its own abortive measure in hand from the time of the ennotment of tho 1891 business. • Since then things have , been given over to the captivity of the 1891 order, the Governor-in-Counci'l, and the policy of drift. What docs the Governor-in-Couneil know or caro about dentistry, what sort of a substitute has lie proved in tho sphere of educational advancement for the University, and who is his dental adviser? Who nominates, to vacancies new members on tho local board, for instance? Who, in short, owns dentistry in New Zealand, and authorise; tho uso of tlie name of tho old association to give weight and support to demands on tho House, when such association has been defunct years? How has this affected' progress? Take Viotoria in comparison. New Zealand had her act 10 years ..in advance of tii&t colony. Since 1891 we have -not merely stagnated, but retrogressed. Since then Victoria put (through her act, established a. college and a journal, created a degree, and cappcd her first batch of students, after.a. four years' oourse, at a ceremony presided over by tho Governor. Tho Chancellor of tho University of Slelbourne, tlie whilo ho welcomed dentistry to her place among tho professions as a humano a.nd cultured member, congratulated tho dentists on having achieved what they had done without a shilling help from Government. Tako our position: No combination, an obsolete system of private office training unsupplcmented by the school, and a spectacle of competing examining boards. Students not .even restricted to their own province, but patronising the board in their opinion likeliest to prove indulgent to their deficiencies, sometimes customers of the ono, sometimes the other. Yet wo are told the examinations are being made hard. Hardness is not tho need. Are they fair and suitable? In a profession acknowledged to be 90 per cent, mechanical aud manipulative, where the value of an operator for tho delicate, often hazardous, services he has to undertake for his patients depends 011 the trained dexterity of his hand and judgment; to subordinate tho praotical to the theorctioal part of the test is both unique and dangerous. Yot a pass percentage can ,be obtained on tho oral and written sections alone, to tho praotical exclusion of tho other more vital portion, and qualification hero in Dunedin is granted inside the brief tonuro of a threo years' apprenticeship, for. what is little more than a memorising effort. This is what wo are 'invited to ' champion. Where can tho incentivo come from out of this to acquire skill, and where the protection against incompetency?—l am, ! cte., ' A Fit. j — Fino voices aro seldom found in a country where fish or meat diet nrovaik Those Italians who eat tho most fish (Neapolitans and Genoese) have few fiuo 6ingers among them. ■ The sweet voices are found in the Irish women of the country, and not of tho towns. Norway is not a country of singers, because they eat. too much fish; . but Sweden is a country of grain and song. '. The carnivorous birds' croak; grain-eating. • birds sing, ......