372 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXIX. 



Chrysippus, by Erasistratus, son 9 of the daughter of Aristotle. 

 For the cure of King Antic-chus to give our first illustration 

 of the profits realized by the medical art Erasistratus re- 

 ceived from his son, King Ptolemseus, the sum of one hundred 

 talents. 



CHAP. 4. THE EMPIEIC BRANCH OF MEDICINE. 



Another sect again, known as that of the Empirics 10 be- 

 cause it based its rules upon the results of experiment 

 took its rise in Sicily, having for its founder Acron of Agri- 

 gentum, a man recommended by the high authority of Empe- 

 docles 11 the physician. 



CHAP. 5. PAKTICULARS RELATIVE TO HEKOPBILUS AND OTHEli 



CELEBRATED PHYSICIANS. THE VARIOUS CHANGES THAT HAVE 

 BEEN MADE IN THE SYSTEM OF MEDICINE. 



These several schools of medicine, long at variance among 

 themselves, were all of them condemned by Herophilus, 12 who 

 regulated the arterial pulsation according to the musical 13 

 scale, correspondingly with the age of the patient. In suc- 

 ceeding years again, the theories of this sect were abandoned, 

 it being found that to belong to it necessitated an acquaintance 

 with literature. Changes, too, were effected in the school, of 

 which, as already 13 * stated, Asclepiades had become the founder. 

 His disciple, Themison, 14 who at first in his writings implicitly 

 followed him, soon afterwards, in compliance with the growing 

 degeneracy of the age, went so far as to modify his own me- 

 thods of treatment ; which, in their turn, were entirely dis- 

 placed, with the authorization of the late Emperor Augustus, 

 by Antonius Musa, 15 a physician who had rescued that prince 



9 Pythias, the daughter of Aristotle, was his stepmother, and adopted 

 him. His mother's name was Cretoxena. 



10 Or " Sect of Experimentalists." They based their practice upon ex- 

 perience derived from the observation of facts. The word " Empiric " is 

 used only in a bad sense at the present day. For an account of Hippo- 

 crates, see end of B. vii. ; of Chrysippus, see end of B. xx. ; and of Erasis- 

 tratus, see end of B. xi. 



11 See end of B. xi. 12 See end of B. xi. 



13 See B. xi. c. 88^ The Chinese, Ajasson remarks, apply the musical 

 scale to the pulsation ; it being a belief of the Mandarins that the body is 

 a musical instrument, and that to be in health it must be kept in tune. 



13 * In B. xxvL cc. 7, 8. 



14 See end of B. xi. 15 See B. xix. c. 38. 



