12 GENERAL THERAPEUTICS FOR VETERINARIANS 



Aristotle, also of a family of Asclepiadae; lived from 384 to 322 B.C.; was 

 teacher of Alexander the Great; pupil of Plato; founder of natural history and 

 comparative anatomy; teacher of the elementary qualities; discovered the 

 nerves and gave the aorta its name. 



Herophilus and Erasistratus, celebrated anatomists of the Alexandrine 

 school (time of the Ptolemies). Herophilus discovered the sensibility of the 

 nerves, the finer anatomy of the eye, distinguished between systole and 

 diastole, and named the duodenum. Erasistratus discovered the lymph- 

 vessels and healed liver abscesses by operative incision. 



2. GALEN 



Biographical. — Claudius Galenus was born in Pergamos, 131 

 A.D., during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. He was the son of 

 a builder. After pursuing a course of study in philosophy, he 

 studied four years in the school of the Pergamonic physicians. He 

 then visited Smyrna and Corinth, Asia Minor and Palestine, and 

 finally the at that time celebrated medical school at Alexandria, 

 where anatomy especially had flourished from ancient times and 

 where alone the dissection of the human body was permitted. In 

 addition, toxicology was there thoroughly taught. Poisons and 

 antidotes at that time formed the chief part of pharmacology. 

 Returning to Pergamos in 159, he was appointed physician to the 

 gladiators. In 165 he received an appointment under the Emperor 

 Marcus Aurelius in Rome, where he gave lectures on physiology and 

 prepared the royal electuary, a mixture of 62 drugs. The prescrip- 

 tion was written by Andromachos, the physician of Emperor Nero, 

 and was obtained from the Alexandria school. In 180 Galen was 

 the physician of Emperor Commodus, and in 193 of Emperor Sep- 

 timius Severus. He died in the year 200 a.d. His numerous writ- 

 ings, in all about 500, were destroyed in great part through the 

 burning of the Temple of Peace in the reign of Commodus. Eighty- 

 three medical works were preserved, among them the A\Titings on 

 "Healing Methods," "Critical Days," "Functions of the Parts of 

 the Human Body," "Combination and Force of the Simple Medi- 

 cines," and "Differentiation of the Different Varieties of Pulse." 



The teachings of Galen were later acknowledged even by the 

 church; doubt of their correctness was regarded as sacrilege. His 



