56 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



of the Pythagoreans made the great further step, somewhat loosely 

 described by Cicero in the words : 



Hicetas of Syracuse, according to Theophrastus, believes that the 

 heavens, the sun, moon, stars, and all heavenly bodies are standing 

 still, and that nothing in the universe is moving except the earth, 

 which, while it turns and twists itself with the greatest velocity round 

 its axis, produces all the same phenomena as if the heavens were moved 

 and the earth were standing still. 



The activity of the Pythagorean school continued to be im- 

 portant until about 400 B.C., that is, until the rise of the Athenian 

 school under Plato and his successors. It had not only created 

 the science of mathematics ; it had developed, however vaguely 

 and imperfectly, the idea of a world of physical phenomena 

 governed by mathematical laws. 



Dr. Allman says of Pythagoras : 



In establishing the existence of the regular solids he showed 

 his deductive power; in investigating the elementary laws of 

 sound he proved his capacity for induction; and in combining 

 arithmetic with geometry ... he gave an instance of his philosophic 

 power. 



These services, though great, do not form, however, the chief title of 

 the Sage to the gratitude of mankind. He resolved that the knowl- 

 edge which he had acquired with so great labour, and the doctrine 

 which he had taken such pains to elaborate, should not be lost; 

 and . . . devoted himself to the formation of a society d' elite, which 

 would be fit for the reception and transmission of his science and 

 philosophy ; and thus became one of the chief benefactors of human- 

 ity, and earned the gratitude of countless generations. 



In medicine, we meet before the fifth century only with the 

 anatomist Alcmaeon (508 B.C.) of the early medical school at 

 Crotona, in Italy, and in natural philosophy (besides Thales and 

 others already mentioned) with Xenophanes, who, like Pythagoras, 

 held that fossils are in fact what they appear to be, and not mere 

 " freaks of nature," as was generally believed. 



