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323 IILSTOIJY OF DENTAL SUEUEEY

fmancial ?ide well provided for, there would still remain an equall}- im-
portant matter effecting its usefulness, the means of reaching appreciative
readers. It is tliis that will make or unmake the best dental journal that
can ' be produced. A dental journal which reaches no further than the
shelves of a warehouse, no matter what may be its merit, is so much waste
paper. Were the dental profession thoroughly organized, then a journal
pul)Iished as part of its organization machinery would have an assured cir-
culation as large as the members of the profession are numerous. It could
command writers, employ the best editorial talent and attract a profitable
advertising patronage. Without this open door to acquire and maintain
sufficient circulation to make it profitable to its owners and useful to the
profession, the publication of a dental journal calls for a liusiness energy,
tact, and persistence that is not as yet, and possibly never will be available
outside of business ownership. It is not altogether apathy of the profession
that has made such enterprises discouraging failures; it is rather due to the
fact that the business end of the enterprise has not been efficiently provided
for. Professional ideals are too often dreams; professional men have not
the business capacity, push, and energy, to make real, especially when they
are side issues to an exacting and laborious calling. A business house making
the publication of a dental journal a side issue, can, with the least possible
expense, manufacture and market a professional journal as readily and as suc-
cessfully as it can its other products.
In this sketch of dental journalism in the United States, no attempt has
been made to include all the journals that have been published. Many have
come and gone, making no impress upon the profession. Of those now pub-
lished, a number are of but little interest outside of a limited circle, such,
for instance, are the college, fraternitj', and advertising journals.
The "American Journal of Dental Science," and the "Dental Eegister
of tlie West," were preeminently the pioneers of American dental journalism,
one of the east and the other of the west. The first ended its short career
of twenty years at the death of its founder; the other still lives, after more
than tlu'eescore years of \isefulness. The men who so nobly, and at so
serious a financial loss, maintained these two beacon lights of dental educa-
tion well earned the profession's grateful esteem.
The closing years of tlie fourtli decade of the last century were eventful
ones in the history of dental science, especially eventful in the history of
that science in the United States. The more prominent members of the
dental profession in the T'nited States were beginning to feel the need of