THE ORGANS OF VOLUNTARY MOTION. 425 



systematic classifications of the widest kind, supply 

 the true account of his thus missing the solution of 

 one of the simplest problems of anatomy. 



In this, however, as in other subjects, his imme- 

 diate predecessors were far from remedying the defi- 

 ciencies of his doctrines. Those who professed to 

 study physiology and medicine were, for the most 

 part, studious only to frame some general system of 

 abstract principles, which might give an appearance 

 of connexion and profundity to their tenets. In 

 this manner the successors of Hippocrates became a 

 medical school, of great note in its day, designated 

 as the Dogmatic school 5 ; in opposition to which 

 arose an Empiric sect, who professed to deduce their 

 modes of cure, not from theoretical dogmas, but 

 from experience. These rival parties prevailed prin- 

 cipally in Asia Minor and Egypt, during the time of 

 Alexander's successors, a period rich in names, but 

 poor in discoveries ; and we find no clear evidence 

 of any decided advance in anatomy, such as we are 

 here attempting to trace. 



The victories of Lucullus and Pompeius, in 

 Greece and Asia, made the Romans acquainted 

 with the Greek philosophy; and the consequence 

 soon was, that shoals of philosophers, rhetoricians, 

 poets, and physicians 6 streamed from Greece, Asia 

 Minor, and Egypt, to Rome and Italy, to traffic 

 their knowledge and their arts for Roman wealth. 

 Among these, was one person whose name makes a 

 * Sprengd, Gesch. Arz. i. 583. Ib. ii. 5. 



