Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/58

Rh 44 ERASISTRATUS. the brain itself and of the cerebelhim. {De Appell. Part. &c. p. 65.) It is a remarkable instance at once of blindness and presumption, to find this acute physiologist venturing to assert, that the spleen (Galen, de Atra Bile, c. 7. vol. v. p. 131), the bile (id. de Facult. Natur. ii. 2, vol. ii. p. 78), and several other parts of the body (id. Comment. in Hippocr. '•'• De Alim.^'- iii. 14. vol. xv. p. 308), were entirely useless to animals. In the con- troversy that was carried on among the ancients as to whether fluids when drunk passed through the trachea into the lungs, or through the oesopha- gus into the stomach, Erasistratus maintained the latter opinion. (Plut. Si/mpos. vii. 1 ; Gell. xvii. 11, Macrob. Saturn, vii. 15.) He is also supposed to have been the first person who added to the word dprripia, which had hitherto designated the canal leading from the mouth to the lungs, the epithet rpax^'ia, to distinguish it from the arteries, and hence to have been the ori- ginator of the modern name trachea. He attributed the sensation of hunger to vacuity of the stomach, and said that the Scythians were accustomed to tie a belt tightly round their middle, to enable them to abstain from food for a longer time without suffering inconvenience. ( Gell. xvi. 3.) The TTj^ei/jLia, or spiritual substance, plaj-ed a very important part both in his system of physio- logy and pathology : he supposed it to enter the lungs by the trachea, thence to pass by the pulmo- nary veins into the heart, and thence to be diffused throughout the whole body by means of the arte- ries (Galen, de Difer. Puis. iv. 2, vol. viii. p. 703, at alibi); that the use of respiration was to fill the arteries with air (id. de Usu Respir. c. 1. vol. iv*. p. 471); and that the pulsation of the arteries was caused by the movements of the pneuma. He accounted for diseases in the same way, and sup- posed that as long as the pneuma continued to fill the arteries and the blood was confined to the veins, the individual "was in good health ; but that when the blood from some cause or other got forced into the arteries, inflammation and fever was the consequence. (Galen, de Venae Sect. adv. JErasistr. c. 2. vol. xi. p. 153, &c. ; Plut. de Philosoph. Plac. v. 29.) Of his mode of cure the most re- markable peculiarity was his aversion to blood- letting and purgative medicines : he seems to have relied chiefly on diet and regimen, bathing, exer- cise, friction, and the most simple articles of the vegetable kingdom. In surgery he was celebrated for the invention of a catheter that bore his name, and was of the shape of a Roman S. (Galen, Inirod. c. 13. vol. xiv. p. 751.) Further information re- pecting his medical and anatomical opinions may be found in Le Clerc, Hist, de la Med. ; Haller, Biblioth. A?iai. and Biblioth. Medic. Pract.; Sprengel, Hist, de la Med. ; and also in the following works, which the writer has never seen : Jo. Frid. Henr. Hieronymi Dissert. Inaug. exhibens Erasistrati Erasistrateorumque Historiam, Jen. 1790, 8vo. ; F. H. Schwartz, Heropkilus und Erasistratus, eine historisclie Parallele, Inaug. Abhandl., Wurz- burg, 1826, 8vo.. ; Jerem. Rud. Lichtenstadt, Erasistratus als Vorg'dnger von Bro7j,ssais, in Hecker's Annul, der Heilkunde, 1830, xvii. 153. 2. Erasistratus of Sicyon, must have lived in or before the first century after Christ, as he is men- tioned by Asclepiades Pharmacion (apud Galen. de Comvos. Mcdicam. sec. Locos, x. 3, vol. xiii. p. 350): [W.A.G.J ERATOSTHENES. ERASTUS O'Epao-Tos), of Scepsis in Troas, is mentioned along with Coriscus, a native of the same place, among the disciples of Plato (Diog. Laert. iii. 46 ) ; and the sixth among the letters attributed to Plato is addressed to those two Scep- sians. Strabo (xiii. p. 608) classes both men among the Socratic philosophers. (Ast, Platori's Leben u. Schrift. p. 519 ; C. F. Hermann, Gesch. u. System d. Plat. PMlos. i. pp.425, 592, &c.) [L.S.] ERA'TIDAE ('EpaTt'Sm), an ancient illustrious family in the island of Rhodes. The Eratidae of lalysus in Rhodes are described by Pindar {01. vii. 20, &c. ; comp. Bockh, Eocplicat. p. 165) as descended from Tlepolemus and the Heracleidae, of whom a colony seems to have gone from Argos to Rhodes. Damagetus and his son Diagoras be- longed to the family of the Eratidae. [Damage- tus, Diagoras.] [L. S.] E'RATO ('Eparco), a nymph and the wife of Areas, by whom she became the mother of Elatus, Apheidas, and Azan. She was said to have been a prophetic priestess of the Arcadian Pan. (Paus. viii. 27. § 9 ; Arcas.) There are two other mythical personages of this name, the one a Muse arid the other a Nereid. (Apollod. i. 3. § 1, 2. § 6 ; Hes. Theog. 247.) [L. S.j ERATOSTHENES ('Eparoo-e^i/rjj). 1. One of the Thirty Tyrants. (Xen. Hell. ii. 3. § 2.) There is an oration of Lysias against him {Or. 12), which was delivered soon after the expulsion of the Thirty and the return of Lysias from exile. (Clinton, F. H. sub ann. b. c, 403.) 2. The person for whose slaughter by Euphiletus, the first oration of Lysias is a defence. (Lys. p. 2, &c.) [P. S.] ERATO'STHENES ('Eparoo-eeVTis), of Cyrene, was, according to Suidas, the son of Aglaus, accord- ing to others, the son of Ambrosius, and was born B. a 276. He was taught by Ariston of Chius, the philosopher, Lysanias of Cyrene, the grammarian, and Callimachus, the poet. He left Athens at the invitation of Ptolemj'' Evergetes, who placed him over the library at Alexandria. Here he continued till the reign of Ptoleni)^ Epiphanes. He died at the age of eighty, about b. c. 196, of voluntary star- vation, having lost his sight, and being tired of life. He was a man of very extensive learning : we shall first speak of him as a geometer and astronomer. It is supposed that Eratosthenes suggested to Ptolemy Evergetes the construction of the large armillae or fixed circular instruments which were long in use at Alexandria : but only because it is difficult to imagine to whom else they are to be assigned ; for Ptolemy (the astronomer), though he mentions them, and incidentally their antiquity, does not state to whom they were due. In these circles each degree was divided into six parts. We know of no observations of Eratosthenes in which they were probably employed, except those which led him to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which he must have made to be 23" 51' 20"; for he states the distance of the tropics to be eleven times the eighty-third part of the circumference. This was a good observation for the time : Ptolemy (the astronomer) was content with it, and, according to him, Hipparchus used no other* Of his measure of the earth we shall presently speak. According to Nicomachus, he was the inventor of the Koa- Kiuov or CribrumAiithmcticum, as it has since been called, being the well known method of detecting the prime numbers by writing down all odd num- bers which do not end with 5, and strikinji; out