36 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



of a strait, like that of Gibraltar or the Dardanelles, were 

 considered in terms of the rationalistic explanations of the 

 present day. The attempts to discover an elixir of life were 

 a foreshadowing of the work of the later alchemists from 

 which our modern chemistry arose. Biological science was 

 not neglected, for the medical traditions of Hippocrates were 

 known in Alexandria and there mingled with those of ancient 

 Egypt. The examination of the human body was permitted, 

 and the dissecting room of the Museum was the earliest 

 anatomical laboratory. The existence of zoological and 

 botanical gardens is also recorded. 



For the purposes of this discussion, these particular items 

 are of interest, but it is of more importance that the Alex- 

 andrian Museum represents the earliest institutional at- 

 tempt at the systematic organization and extension of 

 scientific knowledge. Moreover, the science of Alexandria 

 did not restrict itself to observation, but relied also upon 

 experiment. Although the great days were gone centuries 

 before the Mohammedan conquest, it is not without sig- 

 nificance that the Arabs became proficient in the same fields 

 of knowledge which had been highly developed in Alexandria 

 at an earlier period. 21 



In the hands of a race politically and morally dominant, 

 these material and spiritual attainments of the ancient 

 Greeks might have conquered the world. But in Alexandria, 

 even before the Roman conquest, the government was 

 insecure. Dissipation was rife; and the paralysis born of 

 moral skepticism had become almost universal among the 

 upper classes with the decay of paganism. In the technical 

 operations of science, there were certain limitations that were 

 not removed until long after the period in question. For 

 example, physical science was handicapped by the lack of 



21 Draper, J. W., "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe." 

 An excellent account of the Alexandrian Museum will be found in Chapter VI. 

 See also: Browne, C. A., loc. cit.; and Mahaffy, J. P., "The Progress of Hel- 

 lenism in Alexander's Empire." 



