34 INTRODUCTION. 



thagoras. But it is to Hippocrates, who is styled the father 

 of medicine, that we are directed to look, as being the pos- 

 sessor of all the Anatomy known in his day, which was 

 about 500 years before Christ. This knowledge, if such 

 it may be called, though it abounded in errors, and in a 

 great measure necessarily so, from the dissections being 

 mostly confined to inferior animals, and from the supersti- 

 tions of the age, and insuperable obstacles constantly oppo- 

 sing human dissections : we say, in view of all this, we 

 cannot refrain uniting in the language of an author, "that 

 the perseverance and acquirements of this great man, the 

 ornament of the medical profession, cannot be sufficiently 

 admired." A few specimens of his Anatomical knowledge 

 will here suffice. The left ventricle of the heart he supposed 

 the seat of the soul. The arteries he thought conducted 

 the spirits. The liver he believed to be the fountain of 

 the blood, and the root of the veins. The heart and lungs 

 he supposed received part of our drink. The auricles were 

 believed to serve the purpose of a fan; and no distinction 

 was made between arteries, veins, nerves and tendons. 



After Hippocrates, the study of Anatomy seemed to be 

 chiefly confined to the two schools of Athens and Alexandria. 

 To the former belong the names of Socrates, Plato, Xeno- 

 phon, Aristotle and Theophrastus. And although their 

 attention was principally directed to the study of Philosophy, 

 yet a knowledge of Anatomy was not overlooked, though 

 the examination of bodies was very much restricted. 



In the Alexandrian school, however, Anatomy greatly 

 flourished. It received the protection, favor, and presence 

 of the Ptolemies. Anatomy was here publicly taught. 

 Dissections of human bodies were made, and we are in- 

 formed that kings were sometimes present at them. Hero- 

 philus and Erasistratus were the distinguished masters of 

 Anatomy in this school. We are told that they dissected 

 several hundred bodies, and were especially famous for 

 their productions in Neurology. 



From Herophilus and Erasistratus, to Galen, embracing a 



