46 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



Because these presentations were called the "Feasts of the Muses," 

 the locale where they were held became known as the "museum." 

 Ptolemy participated in some of the events. It became the rule to 

 announce forthcoming subjects in advance, so that the public 

 was informed. At the conclusion of the lectures, the teachers re- 

 ceiving the most applause were compensated accordingly. 



The opportunities and atmosphere which prevailed in Alex- 

 andria were such that students flocked there from all parts of the 

 then existing world (Gask, '40). The three things necessary for 

 academic learning were there: buildings, teachers and students. 

 Interested in the things of the mind, thoughts mingled leading to 

 new ideas, which became crystallized to the extent that old reli- 

 gious dogmas were abandoned (Haggard, '29). 



Not all authors are complimentary to the standards which 

 existed at the school of Alexandria. Dana ('28) states that the 

 program which developed was kept up for vanity rather than true 

 love of science. Soter, he claimed, was more concerned with estab- 

 lishing a reputation for the center, that his teachers were pedants 

 and not scholars, that many books were of no value, that the in- 

 quiries were petty and that there was boastful advocacy of spe- 

 cial theories. Walsh ('35) also libels and censures the teachers, 

 to some extent, as follows: they withheld knowledge of their dis- 

 coveries from their students and all their teaching was confined 

 to the texts at their disposal. 



Participating in this intellectual climate, such as it was, were 

 the two outstanding pioneering anatomists previously mentioned, 

 Herophilus and Erasistratus. They established a school of medi- 

 cine at Alexandria which flourished for 300 years and lived 

 1,000. They must be given credit for developing anatomy into a 

 distinct branch of science. The first to use the scalpel, they laid 

 bare many secrets of the human body and succeeded in making 

 a step forward in correcting existing ideas, based on animal dis- 

 section (Buck, '17). Galen called them the "ancient authorities" 

 (Corner, '.30). There is some reason to believe that this pair of 

 transplanted Greeks had more to do with making the city eminent 

 than any of the numerous other physicians who participated in 

 the over-all program. All that was needed, was permission to dis- 

 sect human bodies. The authorization was by royal decree and it 



