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Herophilus

Herophilus (335 B.C. - 280 B.C.), considered the first anatomist in history, has been called the father of anatomy, given his role in the growth of anatomical science. He was the first doctor to base his conclusions on dissection of the human body, predating Leonardo da Vinci and Vesalius, both known for their explorations into dissecting bodies, by 1,800 years. He was extremely influential during his own time and his works were used for centuries.

Although all of his works were lost because the Library of Alexandria, which kept them, was destroyed in 272 A.D., later scholars quoted him extensively. Herophilus was advanced in his scientific methods. Adrian Willis in The Lancet quoted Herophilus as having said, "Let the phenomena be described first even if they are not primary."

Herophilus was born in 335 B.C. in Chalcedon, Asia Minor (now Turkey). Little is known about his personal life or even about the date and place of his death, which along with all his writings, have been lost. From secondary sources, such as the celebrated physician Galen, the Platonist and polemical writer Celsus, and the well - known theologian Tertullian in the 2nd century A.D., it is known that Herophilus wrote about a myriad of topics, including therapeutics, aphorisms, pulse lore, anatomy, gynecology, and ophthalmology.

Started Practice of Dissection

Herophilus first studied medicine under Praxagoras of Cos., before continuing his education in Alexandria. At the time, Alexandria was the center of learning and scholarship, and learned men from througthout the known world visited its famous library. Herophilus found his niche in Alexandria and stayed there the rest of his life. He started out there as a student before teaching and practicing medicine. In Alexandria, he was allowed to practice dissection, which was banned elsewhere and seen as an unnatural desecration of the body. In Alexandria, though, dissections became a fascination, so much that Herophilus performed them publicly when he became comfortable enough to explain what he was doing. His work drew widespread praise.

He took on an apprentice, Erasistratus. With Erasistratus, Herophilus is believed to have founded an advanced medical school in Alexandria which drew people from throughout the ancient world. Herophilus' fame made the school a success. Some of his methods, however, were considered controversial because he is thought to have sometimes done vivisections on live criminals, to see how the organs worked in a live body. There were no anesthetics at the time. Adrian Wills in Lancet magazine wrote about this: "Celsus and Tertullian (in On the soul) accused him of human vivisection ('Herophilus that doctor, or rather, butcher . . . death in his hands was not simply death, butled to error from the very process of cutting up'), but such accusations remain speculative."

When Herophilus was alive, conventional medicine revolved around the four humors: yellowbile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. To Herophilus, an imbalance of these four fluids triggered all diseases and ailments. An excess of yellow bile led to violence, vengeance, short - temperedness, and ambition. An excess of black bile led to introspection, sentimentality, and gluttony. An excess of phlegm made people sluggish, pallid, and cowardly. And an excess of blood made people more amorous, happy, generous, optimistic, and irresponsible. There were good and bad about each of the four humors, and it was only when they were in balance that a person could be happy and healthy. The veins visible through the skin were considered to be filled with air or water as well as blood. The brain was even thought as a sort of cooling chamber for emotions. Herophilus first suggested that the brain might be the seat of the intellect, and he imparted special importance on all of its ventricles. He also deduced that the veins carried only blood. He did however, have an idea about something called pneuma, which he thought was necessary to the health of the brain and the body and which flowed through the body via the arteries along with blood. According to Herophilus, diseases occurred when one of the four humors blocked the pneuma from reaching the brain.

Studied the Brain and Nerve System

Herophilus' dissections provided unprecedented knowledge of how the body and its organs worked. He was the first to suggest that intelligence resided in the brain, not the heart. He was also the first man known to differentiate between the cerebrum (larger portion) and the cerebellum (smaller portion) of the brain. He also catalogued and described many of the nerves located in the cranium, including the optic nerve for sight and the oculomotor nerve for eye movement, as well as facial, auditory, and hypoglossal (tongue) nerves. His extensive research into the nervous system differentiated between blood vessels and nerves. He also discovered the differences between the motor nerves, (those used for motion) and the sensory nerves (those used for sensation). This was especially remarkable because there were no microscopes at the time. After his discovery of the optic and oculomotor nerves he studied the eye in great detail, following the optic nerve and describing the retina.

He has also been credited with describing the calamus scriptorius, the part of the brain in which Herophilus thought the soul resided. He discovered and named the torcular herophili, which he found by investigating the brain's cavities and following the sinuses of the dura mater (the tough, stringy membranes covering the brain and the spinal cord that lines the inner surface of the skull) to their meeting point at the sinuses. He thought the sinuses seemed like a winepress, so he named the junction torcular Herophili, as torcular is the Latin word for winepress. These terms are still in use today.

Wrote Treatise on Gynecology

Herophilus thoroughly described the liver and the pancreas. He named the duo denum, the beginning of the small intestine that connects the stomach with the large intestine. He also looked at the alimentary canal, the digestive system tube that extends from the mouth all the way through the body, and which includes the pharynx, the esophagus, the stomach, and the intestines. He drew up schematics of the salivary organs. And during his research of the genital organs he drew up pictures of the ovaries, the uterus, and the Fallopian tubes - although they were not called that at the time - and was able to make a remarkably accurate treatise about the female body for midwives and other doctors.

The anatomist also researched extensively the differences between the arteries and veins, noting their functions and movements. He noticed that the arteries pulsed and he worked out standards for measuring this pulse and using it in diagnosis. He thought this arterial pulsation was reflex, due to the dilation and contraction of the arteries that occurred from the impulses sent from the heart. Herophilus corrected many of the more primitive notions prevalent at the time.

Proponent of Exercise and Healthy Eating

Herophilus was also one of the first doctors who advocated eating a good diet and exercising frequently to maintain health, two things that are still considered the most important proponents of healthy living. The World of Quotes recorded Herophilus as having said, "When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied." He was also a promoter of bleeding (the letting of blood to release excess pressures in the body) as well as drug therapy. He also invented the clepsydra, a portable water clock that measured time by marking the controlled flow of water through a small opening.

Herophilus died around 280 B.C., and his medical school dissolved soon after. And some time after that, the Library at Alexandria where all of Herophilus' works resided, was burned to the ground and all the books the Alexandrians had collected were destroyed with it. But the results of Herophilus' research passed through to the anatomists of the thirteenth century. Soon after Herophilus' death, the practice of dissection also ended, not considered a valid study again until many centuries later. In fact, when Leonardo da Vinci used the practice during the Renaissance to improve his ability to sculpt and paint realistic representations of the human body, it was still considered wrong. Gone were the days of Herophilus' dissection shows, but his scientific method and his learning have survived.

Books

World of Biology, 2 volumes, Gale Group, 1999.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Edition 6, Columbia University Press, 2000.

Merriam - Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Merriam - Webster, 1995.

Periodicals

Lancet, November 13, 1999.

Times (London, England), September 30, 2002.

Online

"History of Ancient Greek Medicine," Archaeonia: A Journey through AncientGreece,http://www.archaeonia.com/science/medicine/history.htm (January 3, 2004).

"Herophilus," Flinders University,http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/science+society/lectures/illustrations/lecture9/herophilus.html (January 3, 2004).

"Herophilus," Online Free Encyclopedia News,www.free-web-template.org/./he/herophilus.html (January 3, 2004).

"Herophilus," World of Quotes,http://worldofquotes.com (January 3, 2004).

 
 

(born c. 335 BC, Chalcedon, Bithynia — died c. 280) Alexandrian physician, often called the father of anatomy. He performed public dissections on human corpses; studied the cavities of the brain, which he regarded as the centre of the nervous system; traced the sinuses of the dura mater to their junction (the torcular Herophili); and classified nerve trunks as motor and sensory, distinguishing them from tendons and blood vessels. He described the eye, liver, salivary glands, pancreas, genitals, duodenum, and prostate gland (naming the last two) and was the first to measure the pulse. A student of Hippocrates' doctrine, he emphasized the curative powers of drugs, diet, and gymnastics. He wrote at least nine works, including a commentary on Hippocrates and a book for midwives, all lost in the destruction of the library of Alexandria.

For more information on Herophilus, visit Britannica.com.

 

Hērophilus (first half of the third century BC), from Chalcedon, one of the great founders (with Erasistratus) of medicine at Alexandria. He made his mark primarily for his study of human anatomy based on human dissection; he is alleged to have practised vivisection on criminals. His writings (which survive only in quotation) included an account of the liver; he correctly opposed the orthodoxy of his day that the veins originated there. His studies of the genital organs, the eye, and the brain were famous; his names for some of the main sections and chambers still survive in their Latin form (the term ‘duodenum’ is his also, a translation of the Greek dōdekadaktulos, ‘twelve fingers long’). He established that the brain and not the heart was the centre of the nervous system (as did Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease, ch. 6), maintaining for the first time the distinction between motor and sensory nerves. The vascular system was not understood by the physicians of his day, and no connection was seen between heart beat and pulse beat. Herophilus probably accepted that the arteries contained blood (not air, as was generally thought), and certainly believed that pulse beat was caused by the normal contraction and dilation of the arteries, though he did not understand that the blood circulated through the arteries because of the pumping action of the heart. He invented a portable water-clock (clepsydra) to measure pulse beat. He also made increased use of drugs, calling them ‘the hands of the gods’. His pathology however showed no advance on that of his predecessors; having no knowledge of bacteria, he believed, as did almost everyone else, that disease was caused by an imbalance of humours. The information about him that survives attests a man of great intellectual ability, wit, and wisdom.

 
(hĭrŏf'ələs) , fl. 300 B.C., Greek anatomist, called by some the father of scientific anatomy. A contemporary of Erasistratus at Alexandria, he made public dissections, comparing human and animal morphology. He studied the structure of the brain (which he regarded as the site of intelligence) and the spinal cord and distinguished between motor and sensory nerves. He also investigated the eye, the alimentary canal (he is credited with naming the duodenum), the reproductive organs, and the arteries and veins.
 
Wikipedia: Herophilos

Herophilos, sometimes Latinized Herophilus (335-280 BC), was a Greek physician. He was born in Chalcedon in Asia Minor (now Kadiköy, Turkey). Together with Erasistratus he is regarded as a founder of the great medical school of Alexandria. He was the first to base his conclusions on dissection of the human body. He studied the brain, recognizing it as the center of the nervous system and the site of intelligence. He also paid particular attention to the nervous system, distinguishing nerves from blood vessels and the motor from the sensory nerves. Other areas of his anatomical study include the eye, liver, pancreas, and the alimentary tract, as well as the salivary and genitalia. His works were lost but were much quoted by Galen in the 2nd century AD. Celsus in 'De Medicina' and the church leader Tertullian state that he vivisected at least 600 live prisoners (although it should be noted that Tertullian lived several centuries after Herophilos and may have had reasons to discredit what he saw as heresy).

Among the first scientists Herophilos is thought to be one of the founders of the scientific method. He had introduced the experimental method to medicine, for he considered it essential to found knowledge on empirical bases. For that he was criticized by Galen for whom the experimental method contradicted rationality. Herophilus had also introduced many of the scientific terms used to this day to describe anatomical phenomena. He was among the first to introduce the notion of conventional terminology, as opposed to use of "natural names", using terms he created to describe the objects of study, naming them for the first time. A part of the skull torcular Herophili is named after him.

Another figure by this name (Herophilus) was an impostor in the time of Julius Caesar who pretended to be the grandson of Gaius Marius. Caesar banished him.

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Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Herophilos" Read more

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