Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/141

 maintained, first retracts when portions of food are introduced and then contracts in such a manner as to break them up into smaller and smaller fragments; this process taking the place of that of "coction," as taught by Hippocrates. The resulting chyle passes from the stomach into the liver and is deposited in those spots where the finer branches of the vena cava and the terminal twigs of the channels which lead into the gall-bladder come together. Here the chyle breaks up into two portions, one of which—viz., that which contains biliary elements—gains an entrance into the channels that lead to the gall-bladder, while the other, which is composed of elements suitable for making pure blood, finds its way into the ramifications of the vena cava. While holding these views about the mode of transformation of gastric chyle into the bile and pure blood, Erasistratus did not hesitate to confess that he was unable to say whether bile was produced within the body or whether it already existed in the food that was taken into the stomach.

As regards the treatment of disease Erasistratus held certain views which were decidedly at variance with those maintained by the majority of his associates. Thus, for example, Straton, a distinguished disciple of this master, praises him for having banished bloodletting from the list of remedial measures, and adds that he can testify to the fact that Erasistratus had, by other means, cured all the diseases in which the ancients commonly employed bloodletting as the chief remedial agent. His favorite substitutes for the latter procedure were fasting, dieting, physical exercise, and—in cases of hemorrhage—placing ligatures around the arms and legs. Caelius Aurelianus is authority for the statement that, in certain very exceptional cases, Erasistratus did resort to bloodletting. Another of the latter's tenets was his strong objection to the employment of purgatives and composite remedies. On the other hand, he appears to have attached considerable importance to the employment of chicory in the treatment of all disorders of the abdominal organs. One of the evidences of his preference for this drug is to be found in the care which