(31)
(31) Friedrich Dannemann: Grundriss einer Geschichte der
Naturwissenschaften, Vol. I, 3d ed., Leipzig, 1908.
Of special interest to us in Alexandria is the growth of the first great
medical school of antiquity. Could we have visited the famous museum
about 300 B.C., we should have found a medical school in full operation,
with extensive laboratories, libraries and clinics. Here for the first
time the study of the structure of the human body reached its full
development, till then barred everywhere by religious prejudice; but
full permission was given by the Ptolemies to perform human dissection
and, if we may credit some authors, even vivisection. The original
writings of the chief men of this school have not been preserved, but
there is a possibility that any day a papyrus maybe found which will
supplement the scrappy and imperfect knowledge afforded us by Pliny,
Celsus and Galen. The two most distinguished names are Herophilus--who,
Pliny says, has the honor of being the first physician "who searched
into the causes of disease"--and Erasistratus.
Herophilus, ille anatomicorum coryphaeus, as Vesalius calls him, was a
pupil of Praxagoras, and his name is still in everyday use by medical
students, attached to the torcular Herophili.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119