Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/67

 GREECE AND SCIENCE AND MEDICINE 6i

Alexandria beecame the seat of the most important university of antiquity : all the branches of study were represented there, and anatomy and medicine were taught with a thoroughness nowhere else attained except at Pergamos. To have studied at Alexandria was, as late as the end of the fourth century a.d., the highest recommendation a physician could give.

Herophilus of Chalcedon (335-280), who was physician to Ptolemy I. (323-284), and Erasistratus of lulls, in later life physician to Ptolemy Philadelphus (284-246), may be regarded as the founders of the Alexandrian school of medicine. The views of these two leaders were not identical, so that in course of time two distinct lines of medical dogma became established, those of the Herophilists and of the Erasis- tratans, respectively.

The advances in medical knowledge made at Alexandria were due to the untrammelled study of practical human anatomy. Herophilus, it is said, went so far as to dissect living persons, criminals assigned to him by the authorities.

Herophilus left his impress on anatomy for all time : he discovered the meeting-place of the cerebral sinuses in the occipital region, naming it the torcular; he gave its name to the duodenum, he called the pul- monary artery the vena arteriosa, and the pulmonary vein, the arteria venosa. He correctly taught that the pulse is due to the heart's systole, and he knew that arteries contain blood. He described the liver, the oviducts, the hyoid bone and many details in the anatomy of the eye. Herophilus traced nerves to and from the central nervous system, and, describing the brain, gave to an appearance in the Fourth Ventricle the name of Calamus Scriptorius which it has ever since retained. Her- ophilus believed the soul resided in the Fourth Ventricle. Herophilus discovered the receptaculum chyli and certain large lymphatics which were rediscovered only in the seventeenth century. Erasistratus made even a more thorough study of the brain than did Herophilus, and attributed mental diseases to lesions of that organ or of the cerebellum. Though he denied that the arteries contain blood, Erasistratus wrote with insight on paralysis, dropsies, liver disease, digestion, absorption and treatment both by drugs and by surgery. Erasistratus is remem- bered for having diagnosed the cause of the illness of Antiochus, son of Seleucus Nicator, whose physician he was. Erasistratus discovered that the prince was in love with his stepmother, Stratonice, because of his blushing and palpitation whenever that lady entered the room. Erasistratus was evidently a physiologist. Whether or not it was with a view of curing Antiochus, I cannot say, but Erasistratus prescribed marriage with Stratonice, for which advice he received a fee of $100,000.

The following belonged to the school of Herophilus ; Demetrius of Apamea (276 B.O.), Collimachus (246 B.C.), Zeuxis of Laodacea, Dio-

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