CHAPTER VII 



SPECIALIZED BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH AFTER ARISTOTLE 



The anatomists of Alexandria 



IF, THEjsT, the ancient conception of nature failed to advance beyond the 

 point to which Aristotle brought it, nevertheless there developed after 

 his time and on the foundations laid by him a specialized form of biologi- 

 cal research which during the following centuries produced rare and abun- 

 dant harvests. The centre of natural research during this period, not only in 

 the biological, but in other branches, was Alexandria, the purely Greek 

 capital of Egypt. Under the patronage of the refined and generous kings of 

 the Ptolemaic dynasty there was here established an institute of scientific 

 research the like of which the ancient world never saw before or afterwards. 

 Even the founder of the dynasty, Ptolemy I (died in 283 b.c), was a highly 

 cultured man who collected books and was himself an author. His son Ptol- 

 emy II founded the Museum of Alexandria (mouseion — a temple of the god- 

 desses of song and wisdom, the Muses), an institution where scholars from 

 every country received lodging and maintenance and substantial assistance 

 for the furthering of their research work. It was conducted on the lines of 

 an academy with the chief librarian as chairman; the highest authority was 

 exercised by the high-priest of the Muses, who was religious head of the 

 college. All the branches of science known to classical antiquity were studied 

 here; the science of biology was chiefly pursued in connexion with medicine, 

 like anatomy and physiology. 



It has been mentioned above that medical science was from early times 

 highly developed in Egypt, inasmuch as the custom of embalming bodies in 

 that country contributed towards increasing the knowledge of human anat- 

 omy. Herein, then, lay certain preconditions for the stimulus given to the 

 study of anatomy in Alexandria; substantial grants of money and literary 

 and material aid from the princes rapidly advanced the development of the 

 school of medicine. Two teachers of more than usually prominent gifts, 

 Herophilus and Erasistratus, finally brought to the school a reputation such 

 as no other attained in classical times. We know little of the personal history 

 of these men, and not much about the general ideas of nature which they 

 embraced. It is assumed, however, that they were influenced by the scepticism 

 of Pyrrho, who apparently found most of his adherents amongst the Alexan- 

 drian physicians. Pyrrho of Elis (376-188 b.c.) taught that no knowledge 



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