Also, in cases of fracture of the symphysis, Hippocrates recommends “binding the teeth together on the right and left of the lesion.” And after having spoken of the best adapted means of constraint in such kinds of fractures, he adds: “If the reduction has been well performed, and the part kept in proper repose, the consolidation takes place in a short time and the teeth do not undergo any damage; in the contrary case, the cure is retarded, the fragments reunite in a bad position, and the teeth are injured and become useless.”[91] From what we have referred, it is easy to perceive how much importance Hippocrates attached to the dental system, what knowledge he possessed as to the pathological conditions of the teeth, the gums, and the jaws, and what means of treatment he used. But in what relates to therapy it will perhaps not be useless to make some further observations. One of Hippocrates’ aphorisms says: “Cold is the enemy of the bones, the teeth, the nerves, the brain, and the spinal marrow.”[92] From this it is easy to conclude that Hippocrates was no friend to hydrotherapic 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_;[93] 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;”[94] which is as much as to say, that it is not enough to apply symptomatic 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 we find written: “One should take care of two things in illnesses—to do good and not to do harm. The art of curing includes three terms: the malady, the patient, and the doctor. The latter is the minister of the art; the patient has to combat the malady together with him.”[95] 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.