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THE GREEKS 61

cure is retarded, the tragiiients reunite ui a had position, and the teeth
are injured and become useless."'
From what we have referred, it is eas\' to percei\e how much impor-
tance Hippocrates attached to the dental s\ stem, what knowledge he
possessed as to the pathological conditions of the teeth, the gums, and
the jaws, and what means ot treatment he used. Hut in what relates
to therapy it will perhaps not be useless to make some further obser-
vations.
One of Hippocrates' aphorisms sa\s:
"Cold is the enemy of the bones, the teeth, the nerves, the brain, and
the spinal marrow."-
From this it is easy to conclude that Hippocrates was no friend to
hxdrotherapic treatment, and that he considered the use of cold drinks
bad for the teeth, and cold applications harmful in dental diseases.
The idea expressed in the aphorism just quoted is to be found repeated
in the book entitled On the Use of Liquids ;^ and in this same treatise we
find vinegar recommended shortly after in cases of burning of the teeth
(an expression probably meant to indicate those pathological conditions
of the teeth and gums which are accompanied by a sense of burning).
Some of the Hippocratic maxims, full of wisdom and good sense, will
forever conserve their importance, whatever be the degree of perfection
to which medical science may come.
"Diseases, says he, should be combated in their origin;"^ which is as
much as to say, that it is not enough to apph' s\'mptomatic or palliative
means of cure, but that it is necessary, rather to seek and to combat the
true causes of disease. And in another place wx find written:
"One should take care of two things in illnesses—to do good and not k
to do harm. The art of curing includes three terms: the malad\', the
patient, and the doctor. The latter is the minister of the art; the patient
has to combat the malady together with him."''
It is only too true, that not all the representatives of the healing art
keep sufficiently in view the precept to do good and not to do harm; nor
do all patients comport themselves in such a manner as to contribute, in
accordance with Hippocrates' wise counsel, to the work of their own cure.
Aristotle, the greatest philosopher .of antiquity, was born at Stagira,
in Macedonia, and lived from 384 to 322 B.C. He wrote most excellent
works on all branches of human knowledge, and was the founder of
Natural History and Comparative Anatom\'. His acquaintance with
anatomy as illustrated principally in his treatise On the Different Parts
of Animals, is absolutely extraordinary for the time in which he lived.

' De articulis, p. 800. -Aphorism, lib. v, No. 18, p. 1253.
' De liquidorum usu, p. 426. * De locis in liomine, p. 419.
* De morbis vulgaribus, lib.
i, p. 948.