GREEK SCIENCE IN ALEXANDRIA 113 



MEDICAL SCIENCE AT ALEXANDRIA. BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN 

 ANATOMY. Alexandria is famous in the history of medicine for 

 many reasons. It was here that human, as contrasted with com- 

 parative, - - anatomy was first freely studied (probably favored 

 by the Egyptian practice of disemboweling and embalming the 

 dead) with the result that many of the grotesque errors of the 

 earlier Greeks, including even Aristotle, w r ere corrected. In this 

 connection two names, and those of rivals, have come down to 

 us as of chief importance, Herophilus and Erasistratus. The 

 former, himself a student at Cos, was a close follower of the teach- 

 ings of Hippocrates and regarded by the ancient world as his 

 worthy successor. Erasistratus, on the contrary, opposed the 

 Hippocratic doctrines. Both became distinguished anatomists. 

 It is believed that the valves of the heart were first recognized 

 and named by Erasistratus, who also studied and described 

 the divisions, cavities and membranes of the brain, as well 

 as the true origin and nature of the nerves. Herophilus like- 

 wise studied the brain, the pulmonary artery and the liver, 

 besides giving to the duodenum the name (twelve-inch) 

 which it still bears. Physiology, meanwhile, made little or no 

 progress, and Cicero, two centuries later, still speaks of the 

 arteries as "air tubes." It appears also that vivisection as 

 well as anatomy was practised at Alexandria, and probably 

 even upon human beings. 



Pergamum, in Asia Minor, was for a time a rival centre of 

 medical learning and medical education, but was eventually 

 overshadowed by the more famous Alexandrian school. Of this 

 last the most celebrated pupil was Galen (born 130 A.D.), the 

 most noted medical man of the ancient Roman world. Galen was 

 a native of Pergamum who, having first studied at home and at 

 Smyrna, spent some years at Alexandria. He then returned to 

 Pergamum, but soon went to Rome, where he became physician 

 to the Emperor Commodus. Galen was an original and volu- 

 minous writer on anatomy. That his name is still constantly 

 linked with that of Hippocrates is probably the best evidence of 

 his importance in the history of medical science. 



