The all important feature of recent progress is the British Dental Association. The Dental body has been afflicted with inherent weakness through the want of organisation, a weakness that paralyses, and at the same time, a weakness endowed with remarkable power, the power of successfully defeating efforts toward general reformation. So long as we were isolated and detached it is not wonderful that we were selfish and afraid of one another, but a new era has dawned. We have an Association to which all are eligible, where all can meet on the common ground of professional brotherhood and intercourse. The control of the Association, embracing the future welfare of the whole body, is committed to a Board constituted on a representative basis. None need be excluded from participation, save by their own poverty of professional spirit, a poverty exhibited alike by persistent recourse to unprofessional practice, and by selfish indifference to professional politics. There may be a kind of superiority in having a large practice, or in holding a high scientific position, but unless I am greatly mistaken the true superiority is that which overleaps all selfish considerations, and delights in consecrating whatever power or position we may have to the elevation and improvement of the whole profession. Thank God we have men who have been inspired with a large measure of true professional spirit. Men who could think for themselves and hold their own opinions, but who at the same time have been large-hearted enough to merge minor differences in the pursuit of one grand object. Such men as Edwin Saunders, John Tomes, J. Smith-Turner, T. A. Rogers, A. Coleman, Dr. Walker, our esteemed President, and many others, stand forth as examples of _true_ as distinct from _sham_ superiority. The facilities now afforded by our separate branches have removed the excuse so often urged when all the meetings took place in London, and there is practically no obstacle to our speedy improvement. We possess advantages of a political nature quite equal to those existing in any kindred profession. These are the bare facts of the present time; they furnish material for much thankfulness and for cheerful anticipation. They are the foundation on which our future must be erected. What that future is to be depends on what we mean to be. The scaffolding is up, the materials are ready. Willing hearts and willing hands are needed to complete the edifice. There is a sublime principle working through the whole human family, the operation of which no individual can withstand. It was formulated by the Founder of the grandest system the world has ever known, and this is the formula— “Whosoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant.”