9 
PATHOLOGY. 
favourably) for ages. The beautiful fyftem of ethics, 
likewife, to which Zeno and Epicurus gave birth, were 
not developed without a fubfequent change in this fci- 
ence. The tenets of Epicurus and Pyrrho were adopted 
by the empirical fedft, while the dogmatifts attached 
themfelves to the ftoical fyftem, particularly the dietetic 
method. For, we mull remark, that, foreign as thefe 
fubje&s may appear.to the pradlice of phyfic, yet its 
higher branches cannot be fuccefsfully ftudied without 
occafional reference to every branch of phiiofophy, whe¬ 
ther moral or phyfical. 
The eftabliftmient of the Alexandrian School forms an 
important epoch in the hiftory of medicine. But we have 
to regret that the deftru&ion of its fplendid library, by 
the hands of barbarous conquerors, has left us little to 
relate concerning its doftrines or its practice. We have 
little hefitation, however, in faying, that the advancement 
of medicine muft have been very great in a fituation 
where it derived aftiftance from long cultivation of its 
principles in Greece, Egypt, and India, a fituation too 
where fcience in general was patronifed with fo much 
earneftnefs by illuftrious kings. Moreover this city of 
Alexandria, on account of the connexion it held with all 
the world as a commercial emporium, muft have been 
frequently vilited by foreigners whole diet, clothing, ha¬ 
bits of life, not to mention a free communication of their 
own medical rules, muft have illuftrated the fpeculations of 
the Alexandrian phyficians in a very luminous manner. 
The long feries of fafts collefted by the Egyptian priefts 
was here treafured up; the obfervations of the Hebrews, 
who, long difperfed over the plains of Aflyria and Media, 
had united their own medical doctrines with the tenets of 
Zoroafter and Ham, were examined; while the Greeks, 
uniting the ufeful part of this defullory and obfcure in¬ 
formation with the found practice of their anceftor Hip¬ 
pocrates, with the anatomical knowledge they were ra¬ 
pidly acquiring, and with their own profound phiiofophy, 
advanced the progrefs of the healing art in an unexampled 
manner. 
Erafiftratus and Herophilus were the firft phyficians of 
note in this fchool. The former flourifhed about the 
time of Seleucus, B. C. 270. His attention was directed 
for the inoft part to furgery and anatomy; but, that his 
medical tact was of no mean defcription, we have ample 
proof in the ftory told of his difcovering the love of 
Antiochus for Stratonice, whom Seleucus his father had 
then lately married. He made this dil'covery from ob- 
ferving, that the colour of the prince changed, and his 
pulfe quickened, when Stratonice entered the room, and 
that no fuch effects followed the prefence of any other 
woman. Erafiftratus was likewife confirmed in this 
opinion, becaufe he was unable to trace elfewhere the 
caufe of the prince’s extreme illnefs ; for it fhould be re¬ 
marked, that Erafiftratus held the lame opinion as the 
dogmatifts, that a difeafe could not be cured without a 
knowledge of its caufe. The fame incident likewife 
Ihows the high rank which the phyficians held in thofe 
days ; fince, by the influence of Erafiftratus, Seleucus was 
perfuaded not only to give up his wife, but alfo part of 
his kingdom, to Antiochus. 
Erafiftratus fuppofed that inflammation was produced 
by the coagulation of blood in the fmall arterial veflels. 
In his practice he was fond of Ample remedies, more efpe- 
cially of J'uccory ; and he even delcended to defcribe the 
beft mode of boiling it. He taught that medicines did not 
operate on the bowels by attraction, as had been fuppofed ; 
and that the humours which they difcharged were not the 
lame in the body as they appeared after their evacuation, 
but were altered by the adtion of thofe remedies. To 
purging, however, he had an objedlion, and fupplied the 
want of it by clyfters. Emetics were frequently prefcribed 
by him ; and he recommended abltinence in a great de¬ 
gree. Venefedtion he difapproved of for fome very fool- 
ilh reafons ; among which, it may be fuflicient to mention, 
ift. That we cannot fee the vein; 2dly. That we may 
Vol. XIX. No. 1283. 
cut the artery; 3dly. That we do not knowhow much to 
take. His attachment to his theory of inflammation was 
the principal theory, however, why he objedted to bleed¬ 
ing, becaufe it did not appear to him, that the abftradtion 
of blood was likely to relieve the coagulation of that 
fluid in its veflels. 
Some very barbarous adds are related of this phyfician ; 
for inltance, that he fometimes cut open the bodies of pa¬ 
tients afflidted with complaints of the liver, and applied 
remedies immediately to the fubftance of that organ. 
Yet he objedted to the operation of parucentefis, or tap¬ 
ping, becaufe he conceived that, the water being evacu¬ 
ated, the furrounding vifcera would prefs upon the liver, 
and produce fatal confequences. He had a notion, that 
death changed the ftrudture of the body, as well as^the 
relation of its parts. In this opinion he was ftrongly fup- 
ported by Herophilus; and we turn with horror from the 
contemplation of 600 victims whom thefe barbarians are 
reported to have difiedted alive, and blulh that fuch a re¬ 
cord fhould be found in th.e annals of medicine. Yet the 
refined Celfus, after enumerating the advantages which 
accrued from this atrocious deed, excufes the cruelty of 
it by obferving, that “It cannot be juftly deemed cruel 
to put a few guilty individuals to torture, with a view to 
afcertain means of relief for all the innocent among man¬ 
kind in all fucceeding ages.” 
Herophilus added, to the anatomical refearches in 
which he aflifted his contemporary, an intimate acquain¬ 
tance with pharmacy. He made ufe of a great number 
of medicines, both Ample and compound. In his works, 
we find the firft mention of a difeafe which he calls palfy of 
the heart; it produced fudden death, and it has been fup¬ 
pofed that this muft anfwer to what we now call angina 
pedoris. 
About this period, according to Celfus, the practition¬ 
ers of medicine w'ere formed into three divifions: 1. 
Thofe who attended to diet, regimen, and domeftic ma¬ 
nagement, who were particularly careful to diftinguifh the 
caufes and fymptoms of difeafes, and were of the firft 
rank. 2dly. Thofe who adminiftered remedies, in the 
preparation of which they affeCted to be particularly care¬ 
ful. And, laftly, thofe who performed the operations of 
furgery. Anterior to this time, the preparation of medi¬ 
cine among the Greek phyficians was entrufted to their 
or ftudents, as well as the chirurgical depart¬ 
ment, though the latter was often executed by the phy¬ 
ficians themfelves. The combination of the three branches 
continued, however, for ages, in a few inftances, among 
the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabians. 
The Romans, as Pliny affures us, had continued 
without phyficians, if not without phyfic, during a period 
of 600 years. The few manual operations which W'ere 
found indifpenfably necefiary were performed by their 
Haves or freedmen ; and inftances are not wanting, in 
which their ficill was rewarded by the honour of citizen- 
fhip. On the occafion of a deftruClive epidemic, in the 
year 463 A.U.C. however, they fent a deputation to the 
temple of ZEfculapius at Epidaurus. Inftead of an oracle, 
they received one of the facred ferpents ; and, following 
the indication of its fpringing from the fhip upon theifland 
of the Tiber, they there founded a temple to the god of 
medicine, and eftablifhed his worfhip on the fame footing 
as at Epidaurus. Shortly afterwards, a temple was dedi¬ 
cated to the Grecian Hygeia, and the worfhip-of Ifis and 
Serapis was borrowed from the Egyptians : but, befides 
thefe, the Romans afterwards ereCted fanes in honour of 
medical deities peculiar to themfelves. A prevalent 
dread of certain maladies caufed them to offer up prayers 
to the deities who were fuppofed to inflict them. Hence 
they worftiipped Febris on the Palatine Mount, and Mephitis 
at Cremona. They had likewife a goddefs Offipaga, who 
prefided over the growth of bones, and Carna, who took 
care of the vifcera, and to whom they offered bacon and 
bean-broth, as being nutritious articles of diet. The firft 
perfon who praftifed medicine at Rome in a regular man- 
D ner. 
