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58 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY

is not only a constant symptom in scurvy, but is also frequent in all dis-
eases attended by profound disorders of nutrition/
Setting on edge of the teeth is counted by Hippocrates among the many
symptoms to which a protracted leucorrhea may give rise:
"One should ask women who have been troubled for some time with
a white flux whether they suffer from headache, pains in the kidneys and in
the lower part of the belly, as well as setting on edge of the teeth, dimming
of the sight, singing in the ears.""
Hippocrates had also observed that the phenomenon of setting the
teeth on edge (^stupor dentnitn) may be produced as well by acids in
general, also by acid vomiting;^ and that it may also be produced in many
individuals by a strident sound/
In the second book of Epidetnics we find a proposition of the following
tenor:
;"'^
"Long-lived individuals have a greater number of teeth which is
as much as to say that "the having a greater number of teeth is a sign
of longevity." This prejudice is to be found repeated by many authors
subsequent to the epoch of Hippocrates, and among these by Aristotle
and Pliny. Not even the greatest men are infallible; there is, there-
fore, no reason to be scandalized if Hippocrates should really have fallen
into such an error. Anyhow, it should be observed that only the first
and the third book on Epidemics are held to be really authentic,
while the other five were probably compiled by other doctors of the
school of Hippocrates who did not limit themselves merely to gathering
together the many isolated notes and observations left in writing or derived
from the oral teachings of their master, but took it upon themselves to
introduce into the compilation something of their own besides. It is,
therefore, anything but certain that the above-mentioned error is really
to be attributed to Hippocrates.
The probable origin of this prejudice, which certainly originated among
the people and was afterward accepted by the doctors, is easily to be
guessed at. Individuals blessed with dental arches of remarkable
beauty and perfection may sometimes convey the impression of having a
greater number of teeth than others, for those two rows of regular white
teeth, close to one another, strike, the optic sense much more vividly
than teeth of the ordinary kind. This impression is somewhat analogous,
at least as regards color—to the optical illusion which causes a white circle
to appear larger than a black one of equal diameter. Now, without
doubt, individuals with a perfect denture are mostly healthy and w^ell

' Paul Dubois, Aicle-mciiioirc du Paris, i8c)4, 2mc
chirurniiii-ck-iiristi-, partie, pp. 415,
416.
^Pracdictorutn, lib. ii, p. 108. -^ l)e iiitnnis affcctionibus, p. 534.
'>
I)f liunioribus, p. 49. l)c- moibis vulu;aribus, lib. ii, section vi, p. 1050.