Sir, I was pleased to read the letter from Y. Maidment (BDJ 2006; 200: 125) contributing to developments in Scottish higher degrees. However Birmingham and not Edinburgh awarded the first higher dental degree. In 1901 it bestowed the postgraduate degree of Master of Dental Surgery on John Humphries, LDS (Ire) and Frank Earle Huxley, MRCS, LDS (Edin). I do not know if Edinburgh's DDS was the first such degree.