ADAMANTIUS, an Alexandrine philosopher and physician, who probably lived in the fourth century, paid much attention to the diseases of the teeth, as may be argued from two chapters of the _Tetrabiblos_ of Ætius. One of these chapters is entitled, according to the Latin translation of Giano Cornario: “Cura dentium a calido morbo doloroso affectorum, ex Adamantio, sophista.”[188] This writer clearly belonged to the pneumatic school, founded as early as 69 A.D. by Athenæus of Cilicia. According to the pneumatics (so called, because they admitted the existence in the animal organism of an aëriform principle, _pneuma_, to which they attributed great importance), heat and dryness gave rise to acute maladies; the phlegmatic affections generally arose from humidity, and melancholy was brought on by cold and dryness, as every object dries up and becomes cold on the approach of death. The author says that the cure must vary according as the disease affects in a greater degree the gums or the teeth themselves with or without participation of the dental nerves and neighboring parts. He makes, in regard to this, many subtle distinctions; but the remedies which he counsels do not offer to us any special interest, being almost identical with those that had been recommended by Galen and by other doctors prior to Adamantius. The latter also gives much importance to dietetic therapy; he prescribes that such patients should nourish themselves with pottages of barley, or of spelt, with eggs, lettuce, pumpkins, and other cooling food, abstaining, however, from wine.[189] The author enumerates among the causes of such dental affections the dryness of the air, the autumnal season, the dry constitution of the individual, a troubled life, and scanty nourishment. The use of sour and piquant substances is not favorable to these patients, so much so that the mulberry preserve produces, not unfrequently, violent dental pains in them. Adamantius, therefore, advises, in such cases, not to use strongly astringent mouth washes, but rather lenitive, moistening, and emollient substances; simple lukewarm water, decoction of bran, licorice juice, starch with boiled must of wine diluted with warm water, milk, especially asses’ milk, decoction of mallows and the like.[190] The work of Adamantius from which Ætius has taken the above-mentioned chapters is lost to us. Of his writings there only remain to us the treatise _on the winds_ and the one _on physiognomics_. In this latter book the author attributes great importance to the canine teeth as physiognomonic elements, and from their shape and size he makes deductions in regard to the character of the individual.