Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/136



ERASISTRATUS AND HEROPHILUS, THE TWO GREAT LEADERS IN MEDICINE AT ALEXANDRIA; THE FOUNDING OF NEW SECTS

Two of the most celebrated physicians of that period (305-280 B. C.) were Erasistratus and Herophilus, both of whom were distinguished as the founders of schools or sects of medicine at Alexandria. They had received their early training as physicians from Chrysippus, a widely known Stoic philosopher, who, according to Albert von Haller, had taught at the school of Cnidus and had also written on medical topics; and, among the other teachers, it is stated that Anaxagoras of Cos had instructed Herophilus, and that Metrodorus, the son-in-law of Aristotle, had performed the same service for Erasistratus. So far as fundamental principles are concerned, the schools founded by these two physicians at Alexandria differed very little from each other, and the men themselves also gained their distinction in very much the same branches of medical knowledge, both of them having made a number of original discoveries in anatomy and both of them having become eminent practitioners.

Herophilus was born at Chalcedon, a Greek city on the Propontus, nearly opposite to Byzantium. We possess no knowledge whatever regarding the earlier years of his career, notwithstanding the fact that no fewer than four different men devoted their energies to the writing of his biography. The books themselves have been either lost or destroyed. Herophilus showed a decided leaning toward the study of anatomy, and his contributions to this branch of medicine are among the earliest which we possess.