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lilSTUliY OF DEXTAL SUIIGEKY 403

candidates soon learned that the easiest and most satisfactory way to prepare
tlieniselves for admission to practice was to enter a dental school and obtain
a diploma.
This created a demand for more dental colleges and resulted in the
organization of a large number. Unfortunately it encouraged the creation of
many such institutions which were of no value, excepting perhaps to their
proprietors as a means of obtaining fees from students. The privilege granted
to graduates of dental colleges—the right to practice without examination by
state boards—had much to do with the changing of the laws of many of the
states of the Union. Only one state now remains, Kansas, that recognizes the
dental diploma as a final certificate, entitling the holder to practice dentistry,
without requiring further test of his skill and knowledge to be given to its
state dental board.
Among such schools which caused world wide attention was one organized
under a charter given by the state of Wisconsin on July 17, 1880, known as
the Wisconsin Dental College, located at Delavan. From its fifth annual
announcement, issued in 1884, it appears that its faculty consisted of two
professors, teaching dental pathology and dental therapeutics, and anatomy
and surgery respectively. There was also a demonstrator of operative dentistry
and a demonstrator of meeharical dentistry.
A dentist of five years practice could enter the course at any time during the
session, lie examined and if found qualified, receive the degree of doctor of
dental surgery. The announcement says: "By thorougli application, while
at this college, to studies, theoretical and pi-actical, tire student may, with the
necessary qualifications, graduate at the end of one term." The term com-
menced on the 16th of October, 1884, and closed in the March following.
There were graduated during the first year nine candidates, of whom six
came from Pennsylvania, one from South Carolina, one from Illinois and one
from Manitoba. The next year it had a graduating class of nine, of wliom
four came from Pennsylvania, two from Wisconsin, one from ilinnesota,
one from Iowa and one from Virginia. The third class consisted of eleven,
of whom two were from Pennsylvania, three from 'New York, two from Wis-
consin, one from Ohio, one from Canada, one from Manitoba and one from
Illinois. The fourth year the reputation of the school and the ease with
which, if not a dental education, at least a dental diploma could be obtained
from it, seems to have become world wide : but the profession in this country
appears to have lost confidence in the institution. In that year there were
twelve Graduates, of whom five were in Germanv, two in England, one in