175 
Sir Arthur Hort’s English translation, published in 1916, makes 
very interesting reading. 
The Rhizotomoi. In ancient Greece there was a special guild of 
men called IRhizotomoi, literally root cutters, whose business was 
to gather, prepare and sell the roots of medicinal plants. The 
botanists of ancient times, such as Theophrastus and Dioscorides, 
“do not conclude a description [of a plant] without telling us what 
the subterranean parts are like, whether fibrous or fleshy or tu- 
berous or bulbous, as well as the properties of them,” 1.e. their 
virtues or medicinal value.* Why this particular attention to 
roots? It is common knowledge that not only the roots but also 
1e rhizomes or underground stems, and the tubers of many plants 
serve as repositories for the plant’s reserve food. Now, along 
with this food storage there seems to be deposited in these under- 
eround parts a large amount of certain organic substances or com- 
pounds characteristic of the plant species. For example, roots of 
sassafras and licorice yield the particular organic substances char- 
acteristic of those plants in greatest amount, although these sub- 
stances also occur in lesser degree in other parts of the plant. 
This concentration in the root of important organic substances 
ct 
— 


was recognized early in man’s history. Hence the formation of 
the guild of Rhigotomoi (Fig. 5). 
The royal Ptolemies of Alexandria (307-221 B.C.) did much 
to further the cause of medicine. For one thing, they encouraged 
the dissection of the human body, hitherto forbidden by law. 
Thus the bodies of condemned criminals were handed over to 
“surgeons,” and much was learned about the location and appear- 
ance of the internal organs. Unfortunately, however, their func- 
tions were not yet understood. 
With the annexation of Alexandria to the Roman Empire (30 
B.C.) the Greek-Alexandrian period may be said to have ended, 
although, as we shall see, Alexandria continued to exert an influ- 
ence on the Roman period which followed. During this Greek- 
Alexandrian period the most notable advances were the gradual 
throwing off of the shackles of superstition and, through dissec- 
— 
* Greene, Edward Lee. Landmarks of botanical history. Part 1, p. 45. 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Part of Vol. 54. 1909. 
