HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 9 



HEEOPHILU8 AND THE ALEXANDRIANS. 



Praxagoras had for his pupil the anatomist Herophilus, 

 whose influence contributed to the renown of the school at 

 Alexandria, whose greatest achievements were in the realm 

 of anatomy, physiology and medicine. The great Alexan- 

 drian museum became the center of learning of the ancient 

 world. Scholars from all parts of the world gathered there 

 to prosecute their studies. The attendance is given by 

 some writers as having reached 10,000 students at one 

 time. A glance at some of the names will convince one of 

 the pre-eminence of this first great university of the world. 

 Here Euclid wrote his geometry, here Ptolemy worked out 

 the "Ptolemaic" astronomy, Archimedes his physics. 

 Here originated the theological disputes between Arius and 

 Athanasius which culminated in the Nicene creed. Here 

 the dissection of the human body was allowed by law, and 

 the bodies of condemned criminals were turned over to the 

 students of anatomy. Here the anatomists, Herophilus and 

 Hrasistratus, were the first "professors of anatomy" in a 

 public institution. Many anatomical structures were here 

 first described and still bear their ancient names, the tri- 

 cuspid valves of the heart, the duodenum, the calamus 

 scriptorius, etc. Erasistratus distinguished between con- 

 nective tissue cords and true nerves, and even distin- 

 guished between sensory and motor nerves. 



A marvelous advance was made by Herophilus in the 

 conceptions of brain and spinal cord. By earlier writers 

 they were regarded as unimportant collections of fat-like 

 tissues something like the marrow of the bones. The fact 

 that the earlier observers could see nothing in these struc- 

 tures except a soft structureless mass led to this error. The 

 term "spinal marrow" still used is probably a relic of the 

 times when this organ was not understood. Herophilus 

 made the brain the seat of conscious activities; the center 

 to which sensations are carried and the sourcs of voluntary 

 movements. What a step forward in the field of physio- 

 logical research ! But with all these advances they never 



