FORM AND FUNCTION 



CHAPTER I 



THE BEGINNINGS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



THE first name of which the history of anatomy keeps record 

 is that of Alcmaeon, a contemporary of Pythagoras (6th 

 century B.C.). His interests appear to have been rather 

 physiological than anatomical. He traced the chief nerves 

 of sense to the brain, which he considered to be the seat of 

 the soul, and he made some good guesses at the mechanism 

 of the organs of special sense. He showed that, contrary to 

 the received opinion, the seminal fluid did not originate in 

 the spinal cord. Two comparisons are recorded of his, one 

 that puberty is the equivalent of the flowering time in plants, 

 the other that milk is the equivalent of white of egg. 1 Both 

 show his bias towards looking at the functional side of living 

 things. The latter comparison reappears in Aristotle. 



A century later Diogenes of Apollonia gave a description 

 of the venous system. He too placed the seat of sensation 

 in the brain. He assumed a vital air in all living things, 

 being in this influenced by Anaximenes whose primitive 

 matter was infinite air. In following out this thought he 

 tried to prove that both fishes and oysters have the power of 

 breathing- 2 



A more strictly morphological note is struck by a curious 

 saying of Empedocles (4th century B.C.), that "hair and 

 foliage and the thick plumage of birds are one." 3 



1 E. Zeller, Greek Philosophy, Eng. trans., i., 522 f.n., London iSSr. 

 Other particulars as to Alcmaeon in T. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Eng. 

 trans., i., London, 1901. 



- Zeller, loc. cit., i., p. 297. 3 Gomperz, loc. cit., i., p. 244. 



