INTRODUCTION 



of the musical scale. Aristotle was the last great man 

 of science who lived and taught in Greece. His 

 writings disappeared from view for many centuries, 

 and when they were recovered they were not so much 

 examined and corrected as idolised. 



Greece lost her liberty at Chaeronea, and with liberty 

 her fairest hopes of continued intellectual development. 

 Nevertheless, during a great part of a thousand years 

 the Greek and Semitic school of Alexandria cultivated 

 the sciences with diligence and success. We must say 

 nothing here about the geometry, astronomy, optics, or 

 geography there taught, but merely note that Hero- 

 philus and Erasistratus, unimpeded by that repugnance 

 to mutilation of the human body which had been insur- 

 mountable at Athens, made notable advances in anatomy 

 and physiology. From this time a fair knowledge of 

 the bodily structure of man, decidedly superior to that 

 which Aristotle had possessed, was at the command of 

 every educated biologist. 



The genius of Rome applied itself to purposes remote 

 from science. The example of Alexandria had its 

 influence, however, upon some inhabitants of the 

 Roman Empire. Galen of Pergamum in Asia Minor 

 prosecuted the study of human anatomy. His know- 

 ledge of the parts which can be investigated by simple 

 dissection was extensive, but he was unpractised in 

 experimental physiology. Hence his teaching, though 

 full with respect to the skeleton, the chief viscera, and 

 the parts of the brain, was faulty with respect to the 

 flow of the blood through the heart and body. Ages 

 after his death the immense reputation of Galen, like 

 that of Aristotle, was used with great effect to discredit 

 more searching inquiries. Under the Roman Empire 

 also flourished Dioscorides, who wrote on the plants used 



