THE HISTORY OF INTERNAL MEDICINE 223 



5. The Methodist School was founded by Asclepiades (B.C. 128-56) 

 and his pupil Themison. It was an application of the atomic philosophy 

 of Leucippus and Democritus to medicine, holding that vital and morbid 

 phenomena depended on the movements of atoms or particles through 

 pores in the body. The methodist doctrines exerted a strong influence 

 on medical thought for many centuries. 



6. The Pneumatic System, about A.D. 70 to 160, was founded and 

 chiefly represented by Athemeus of Attalia. Its pathology was based 

 on an aerial or gaseous principle. 



7. The Eclectics, who date from about 50 A.D., had no common or 

 distinctive views, but individually developed widely differing systems. 

 Among them were included some of the most eminent physicians of 

 antiquity. Aretaeus (about 30-90 A.D.) was one of the earliest and 

 most distinguished. Two other eminent writers of about that period 

 deserve mention, namely, Celsus (about 30 B.C. to 50 A.D.), a brilliant 

 encyclopedic writer on medicine, and Dioscorides (40-90 A.D.), who 

 wrote a treatise on materia medica which remained an authority almost 

 to modern times. 



The greatest of the Eclectics was Claudius Galen (about 131-206 

 A.D.), of Pergamus and Eome. He received an exhaustive education 

 at Pergamus (in Asia Minor), and other educational centers, and espe- 

 cially at Alexandria. He was a most prolific writer, not only on medi- 

 cine but on other subjects, his works numbering between three and four 

 hundred. He made important and extensive original contributions on 

 anatomy and pharmacology. In internal medicine his system to a con- 

 siderable extent was a revival and amplification of the doctrines of 

 Hippocrates. So powerful was his influence that for nearly fifteen 

 centuries Hippocrates and Galen continued the main authorities and 

 basis of medicine. 



Prom about the second century B.C. Greece and the entire civilized 

 world of that time had come under Eoman dominion; but though the 

 political administration was Eoman the culture and civilization of the 

 Eoman Empire was of Greek origin and character. The early medicine 

 of the Eomans was very crude, consisting mainly of superstitious obser- 

 vances under the auspices of soothsayers and priests; and there was no 

 important Eoman addition to medical knowledge. Later, Greek medi- 

 cine and practitioners were introduced among the Eomans, and pre- 

 vailed until the fall of the Empire. Asclepiades (B.C. 128-56), the 

 founder of the methodist school, was one of the main agents in estab- 

 lishing Greek medicine in Eome. Alexandria was for centuries the 

 greatest center and headquarters of learning and education of the ancient 

 world; it contained a vast library and produced important systems of 

 philosophy and medicine. 



Subsequent to Galen medicine in the Eoman Empire came to a stand- 



