In more than one of his books Hippocrates speaks of special dental or gingival symptoms, having their origin in different maladies, especially those of the spleen: “In many who have enlargement of the spleen the gums become affected and the mouth has a bad smell.”[80] In another place we read: “Among those persons who have an enlargement of the spleen, the bilious ones have a bad color, are subject to ulcerations of a bad nature, their breath is fetid, and they themselves are thin.”[81] Finally, in the _Book on Internal Diseases_, Hippocrates describes different species of splenic maladies, to one of which he assigns the following symptoms: “The belly becomes swollen, the spleen enlarged and hard, the patient suffers acute pain in it. The complexion of the individual is altered. A bad smell emanates from the ears. The gums are detached from the teeth and smell bad; the limbs wither, etc.”[82] The cases of splenic swellings spoken of by Hippocrates in the above passages must have been owing, without doubt, to grave cachectic conditions (among which, probably, scurvy); and we know that gingivitis, with all its possible consequences (among which expulsive periodontitis), is not only a constant symptom in scurvy, but is also frequent in all diseases attended by profound disorders of nutrition.[83] 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.”[84] Hippocrates had also observed that the phenomenon of setting the teeth on edge (_stupor dentium_) may be produced as well by acids in general, also by acid vomiting;[85] and that it may also be produced in many individuals by a strident sound.[86] In the second book of _Epidemics_ we find a proposition of the following tenor: