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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this ebook. - -Title: Greek Biology and Greek Medicine - -Author: Charles Joseph Singer - -Release Date: November 01, 2020 [EBook #63591] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Paul Marshall, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREEK BIOLOGY AND GREEK -MEDICINE *** -</pre><hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="f150"><b>CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY<br />OF SCIENCE</b></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">General Editor</span> CHARLES SINGER</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<h1>I<br />GREEK BIOLOGY<br />&<br />GREEK MEDICINE</h1> - -<p class="f120 space-above2">BY<br />CHARLES SINGER</p> - -<p class="center space-above2">OXFORD<br />At the CLARENDON PRESS</p> -<p class="center">1922</p> -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="center">Oxford University Press</p> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary=" " cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>London</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Edinburgh</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Glasgow</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Copenhagen</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>New York</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Toronto</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Melbourne</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Cape Town</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Bombay</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Calcutta</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Madras</i></td> - <td class="tdc_ws1"><i>Shanghai</i></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> -<p class="center space-above2">Humphrey Milford Publisher to the <span class="smcap">University</span><br /> -2540.1<br />PRINTED IN ENGLAND.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<h2>PREFACE</h2> - -<p>This little book is an attempt to compress into a few pages an account -of the general evolution of Greek biological and medical knowledge. The -section on <i>Aristotle</i> appears here for the first time. The remaining -sections are reprinted from articles contributed to a volume <i>The -Legacy of Greece</i> edited by Mr. R. W. Livingstone, the only changes -being the correction of a few errors and the addition of some further -references to the literature.</p> - -<p>In quoting from the great Aristotelian biological treatises, the -<i>History of Animals</i>, the <i>Parts of Animals</i>, and the <i>Generation of -Animals</i>, I have usually availed myself of the text of the Oxford -translation edited by Mr. W. D. Ross. For the <i>De anima</i> I have used -the version of Mr. R. D. Hicks.</p> - -<p>I have to thank my friends Mr. R. W. Livingstone, Dr. E. T. Withington, -and Mr. J. D. Beazley for a number of suggestions. To my colleague -Professor Arthur Platt I have to record my gratitude not only for -much help in the writing of these chapters but also for his kindness -and patience in reading and rereading the work both in manuscript and -proof. I am specially indebted, moreover, to the notes appended to his -translation of the <i>Generation of Animals</i>.</p> - -<p class="author">C. S.  </p> -<p><span class="smcap">University College, London.</span><br />  <i>March 1922.</i></p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="f200 space-below2"><b>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</b></p></div> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="LOI" cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="3"><span class="bigger">GREEK BIOLOGY</span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"><small>FIGURE</small></td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">1.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Lioness and young, from an Ionian vase of the sixth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_01"> 7</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">2.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><span class="smcap">A</span>, Jaw bones of lion; <span class="smcap">B</span>, head of lioness from Caere vase</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_02"> 7</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">3.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Paintings of fish on plates: Italo-Greek work of the fourth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_03"> 8</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">4.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Head and talons of the Sea-eagle, <i>Haliaëtus albicilla</i>:</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  <small>A</small>, from an Ionic vase of the sixth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>;</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  <small>B</small>, drawn from the object</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_04"> 9</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">5.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Minoan gold cup, sixteenth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i> <a href="#FIG_05">12</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">6.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Horse’s head, from Parthenon. 440 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr">”  <a href="#FIG_06">12</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">7.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Aristotle. From Herculaneum; probably work of fourth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> </td> - <td class="tdr">”  <a href="#FIG_07">18</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">7<i>a</i>.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">The Order of Living Things according to Aristotle</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_07A">30</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">7<i>b</i>.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">The Four Elements and the Four Qualities</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_07B">39</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">8.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Theophrastus. From Villa Albani;</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  copy (second century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span>?) of earlier work</td> - <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i> <a href="#FIG_08">60</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">9, 10.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Fifth century drawings from Juliana Anicia MS.,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  copied from originals of the first century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> (?): 9,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  Σογκός τρυφερός = <i>Crepis paludosa</i>, Moen.; 10,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  Γεράνιον = <i>Erodium malachoides</i>, L.</td> - <td class="tdr">”  <a href="#FIG_9-10">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">11.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Illustrating Galen’s physiological teaching</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_11">67</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc_space-above2" colspan="3"><span class="bigger">GREEK MEDICINE</span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">1.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Hippocrates. British Museum, second or third century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i> <a href="#FIG_1-2B">90</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">2.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Asclepius. British Museum, fourth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr">”  <a href="#FIG_1-2B">90</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">3, 4.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">From MS. of Apollonius of Kitium, of ninth century</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  (copied from a pre-Christian original):</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  3, reducing dislocated shoulder; 4, reducing dislocated jaw</td> - <td class="tdr">” <a href="#FIG_3-4B">104</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">5.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">A Greek clinic of about 400 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>: from a vase-painting</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_05B">106</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">6.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">A kylix, from the Berlin Museum, of about 490 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIG_06B">107</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">7.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Athenian funerary monument. British Museum, second century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>facing</i> <a href="#FIG_07C">114</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">8.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Votive tablet, representing cupping and bleeding instruments,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  from Temple of Asclepius at Athens</td> - <td class="tdr">” <a href="#FIG_08B">120</a></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2>GREEK BIOLOGY</h2> -</div> - -<h3>§ 1. <i>Before Aristotle</i></h3> - -<p>What is science? It is a question that cannot be answered easily, nor -perhaps answered at all. None of the definitions seem to cover the -field exactly; they are either too wide or too narrow. But we can -see science in its growth and we can say that being a process it can -exist only as growth. Where does the science of biology begin? Again -we cannot say, but we can watch its evolution and its progress. Among -the Greeks the accurate observation of living forms, which is at least -one of the essentials of biological science, goes back very far. The -word <i>Biology</i>, used in our sense, would, it is true, have been an -impossibility among them, for <i>bios</i> refers to the life of man and -could not be applied, except in a strained or metaphorical sense, to -that of other living things.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> -But the <i>ideas</i> we associate with the -word are clearly developed in Greek philosophy and the foundations of -biology are of great antiquity.</p> - -<p>The Greek people had many roots, racial, cultural, and spiritual, and -from them all they inherited various powers and qualities and derived -various ideas and traditions. The most suggestive source for our -purpose is that of the Minoan race whom they dispossessed and whose -lands they occupied. That highly gifted people exhibited in all stages -of its development a marvellous power of graphically representing -animal forms, of which the famous Cretan friezes, Vaphio cups (<a href="#FIG_05">Fig. 5</a>), -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> -and Mycenean lions provide well-known examples. It is difficult not to -believe that the Minoan element, entering into the mosaic of peoples -that we call the Greeks, was in part at least responsible for the like -graphic power developed in the Hellenic world, though little contact -has yet been demonstrated between Minoan and archaic Greek Art.</p> - -<p>For the earliest biological achievements of Greek peoples we have -to rely largely on information gleaned from artistic remains. It -is true that we have a few fragments of the works of both Ionian -and Italo-Sicilian philosophers, and in them we read of theoretical -speculation as to the nature of life and of the soul, and we can thus -form some idea of the first attempts of such workers as Alcmaeon of -Croton (<i>c.</i> 500 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>) to lay bare the structure of animals -by dissection.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> -The pharmacopœia also of some of the earliest works of the Hippocratic -collection betrays considerable knowledge of both native and foreign -plants.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> -Moreover, scattered through the pages of Herodotus and other early -writers is a good deal of casual information concerning animals and -plants, though such material is second-hand and gives us little -information concerning the habit of exact observation that is the -necessary basis of science. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_01" name="FIG_01"> </a> - <img src="images/i_007a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="332" /> - <p class="blockquot space-below2"><span class="smcap">Fig. 1.</span> - Lioness and young from an Ionian vase of the sixth century - <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> found at Caere in Southern Etruria - (Louvre, Salle E, No. 298), from <i>Le Dessin des Animaux en Grèce d’après les - vases peints</i>, by J. Morin, Paris (Renouard), 1911. The animal is - drawing itself up to attack its hunters. The scanty mane, the form - of the paws, the udders, and the dentition are all heavily though - accurately represented.</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_02" name="FIG_02"> </a> - <img src="images/i_007b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="270" /> - <p class="blockquot space-below2"><span class="smcap">Fig. 2.</span> <span class="smcap">A</span>, - Jaw bones of lion; <span class="smcap">B</span>, head of lioness from Caere - vase (Fig. 1), after Morin. Note the careful way in which the artist - has distinguished the molar from the cutting teeth.</p> -</div> - -<p>Something more is, however, revealed by early Greek Art. We are in -possession of a series of vases of the seventh and sixth centuries -before the Christian era showing a closeness of observation of -animal forms that tells of a people awake to the study of nature. -We have thus portrayed for us a number of animals—plants seldom or -never appear—and among the best rendered are wild creatures; we see -antelopes quietly feeding or startled at a sound, birds flying or -picking worms from the ground, fallow deer forcing their way through -thickets, browsing peacefully, or galloping away, boars facing the -hounds and dogs chasing hares, wild cattle forming their defensive -circle, hawks seizing their prey. Many of these exhibit minutely -accurate observation. The very direction of the hairs on the animals’ -coats has sometimes been closely studied, and often the muscles are -well rendered. In some cases even the dentition has been found -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> -accurately portrayed, as in a sixth century representation on an Ionian -vase of a lioness—an animal then very rare on the Eastern Mediterranean -littoral, though still well known in Babylonia, Syria, and Asia Minor. -The details of the work show that the artist must have examined the -animal in captivity (Figs. <a href="#FIG_01">1</a> and <a href="#FIG_02">2</a>).</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_03" name="FIG_03"> </a> - <img src="images/i_008a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="260" /> - <img src="images/i_008b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="498" /> - <p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Fig. 3.</span> - Paintings of fish on plates. Italo-Greek work of - the fourth century B. C. From Morin.</p> - <table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary=" " cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">A.</span></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Sargus vulgaris.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">B.</span></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Crenilabrus mediterraneus.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">C.</span></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Uranoscopus scaber?</td> - </tr> - </tbody> - </table> -</div> - -<p class="space-above2">Animal paintings of this order are found -scattered over the Greek world with special centres or schools in such -places as Cyprus, Boeotia, or Chalcis. The very name for a painter in -Greek, <i>zoographos</i>, recalls the attention paid to living forms. By the -fifth century, in representing them as in other departments of Art, the -supremacy of Attica had asserted itself, and there are many beautiful -Attic vase-paintings of animals to place by the side of the magnificent -horses’ heads of the Parthenon (<a href="#FIG_06">Fig. 6</a>). In Attica, too, -was early developed a characteristic and closely accurate type of representation -of marine forms, and this attained a wider vogue in Southern Italy in -the fourth century. From the latter period a number of dishes and vases -have come down to us bearing a large variety of fish forms, portrayed -with an exactness that is interesting in view of the attention to marine -creatures in the surviving literature of Aristotelian origin (<a href="#FIG_03">Fig. 3</a>). -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - -<p>These artistic products are more than a mere reflex of the daily life -of the people. The habits and positions of animals are observed by the -hunter, as are the forms and colours of fish by the fisherman; but -the methods of huntsman and fisher do not account for the accurate -portrayal of a lion’s dentition, the correct numbering of a fish’s -scales or the close study of the lie of the feathers on the head, and -the pads on the feet, of a bird of prey (<a href="#FIG_04">Fig. 4</a>). With -observations such as these we are in the presence of something worthy of the -name <i>Biology</i>. Though but little literature on that topic earlier than -the writings of Aristotle has come down to us, yet both the character -of his writings and such paintings and pictures as these, suggest the -existence of a strong interest and a wide literature, biological in the -modern sense, antecedent to the fourth century.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_04" name="FIG_04"> </a> - <img src="images/i_009a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="168" /> - <img src="images/i_009b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="111" /> - <p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Fig. 4.</span> Head and talons - of the Sea-eagle, <i>Haliaëtus albicilla</i>:</p> - <table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary=" " cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">A,</span></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">From an Ionic vase of the sixth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">B,</span></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Drawn from the object.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">From Morin.</td> - </tr> - </tbody> - </table> -</div> - -<p class="space-above2">Greek science, however, exhibits throughout -its history a peculiar characteristic differentiating it from the -modern scientific standpoint. Most of the work of the Greek scientist -was done in relation to man. Nature interested him mainly in relation -to himself. The Greek scientific and philosophic world was an -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -anthropocentric world, and this comes out in the overwhelming mass -of medical as distinct from biological writings that have come down -to us. Such, too, is the sentiment expressed by the poets in their -descriptions of the animal creation:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i4">Many wonders there be, but naught more wondrous than man:</span> -</div></div></div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i4">The light-witted birds of the air, the beasts of the weald and the wood</span> -<span class="i4">He traps with his woven snare, and the brood of the briny flood.</span> -<span class="i4">Master of cunning he: the savage bull, and the hart</span> -<span class="i4">Who roams the mountain free, are tamed by his infinite art.</span> -<span class="i4">And the shaggy rough-maned steed is broken to bear the bit.</span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i23">Sophocles, <i>Antigone</i>, verses 342 ff.</span> -<span class="i39">(Translation of F. Storr.)</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It is thus not surprising that our first systematic treatment of -animals is in a practical medical work, the περὶ διαίτης, <i>On regimen</i>, -of the Hippocratic Collection. This very peculiar treatise dates from -the later part of the fifth century. It is strongly under the influence -of Heracleitus (<i>c.</i> 540-475) and contains many points of view which -reappear in later philosophy. All animals, according to it, are formed -of fire and water, nothing is born and nothing dies, but there is a -perpetual and eternal revolution of things, so that change itself -is the only reality. Man’s nature is but a parallel to that of the -universal nature, and the arts of man are but an imitation or reflex -of the natural arts or, again, of the bodily functions. The soul, a -mixture of water and fire, consumes itself in infancy and old age, and -increases during adult life. Here, too, we meet with that singular -doctrine, not without bearing on the course of later biological -thought, that in the foetus all parts are formed simultaneously. On -the proportion of fire and water in the body all depends, sex, temper, -temperament, intellect. Such speculative ideas separate this book from -the sober method of the more typical Hippocratic medical works with -which indeed it has little in common. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -After having discussed these theoretical matters the work turns to its -own practical concerns, and in the course of setting out the natures -of foods gives in effect a rough classification of animals. These are -set forth in groups, and from among the larger groups only the reptiles -and insects are missing. The list has been described, perhaps hardly -with justification, as the <i>Coan classificatory system</i>. We have here, -indeed, no <i>system</i> in the sense in which that word is now applied to -the animal kingdom, but we have yet some sort of definite arrangement -of animals according to their supposed natures. The passage opens with -mammals, which are divided into domesticated and wild, the latter being -mentioned in order according to size, next follow the land-birds, -then the water-fowl, and then the fishes. These fish are divided into -(1) the haunters of the shore, (2) the free-swimming forms, (3) the -cartilaginous fishes or Selachii, which are not so named but are placed -together, (4) the mud-loving forms, and (5) the fresh-water fish. -Finally come invertebrates arranged in some sort of order according to -their structure. The characteristic feature of the ‘classification’ is -the separation of the fish from the remaining vertebrates and of the -invertebrates from both. Of the fifty animals named no less than twenty -are fish, about a fifth of the number studied by Aristotle, but we must -remember that here only edible species are mentioned. The existence of -the work shows at least that in the fifth century there was already a -close and accurate study of animal forms, a study that may justly be -called scientific. The predominance of fish and their classification -in greater detail than the other groups is not an unexpected feature. -The Mediterranean is especially rich in these forms, the Greeks were a -maritime people, and Greek literature is full of imagery drawn from the -fisher’s craft. From Minoan to Byzantine times the variety, beauty, and -colour of fish made a deep impression on Greek minds as reflected in -their art.</p> - -<p>Much more important however for subsequent biological development, than -such observations on the nature and habits of animals, is the service -that the Hippocratic physicians rendered to Anatomy and to Physiology, -departments in which the structure of man and of the domesticated -animals stands apart from that of the rest of the animal kingdom. It -is with the nature and constitution of man that most of the surviving -early biological writings are concerned, and in these departments are -unmistakable tendencies towards systematic arrangement of the material. -Thus we have division and description of the body in sevens from the -periphery to the centre and from the vertex to the sole of the foot,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> -or a division into four regions or zones.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> -The teaching concerning the four elements and four humours too became -of great importance and some of it was later adopted by Aristotle. -We also meet numerous mechanical explanations of bodily structures, -comparisons between anatomical conditions encountered in related -animals, experiments on living creatures,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> -systematic incubation of hen’s eggs for the study of their development, -parallels drawn between the development of plants and of human and -animal embryos, theories of generation, among which is that which -was afterwards called ‘pangenesis’—discussion of the survival of the -stronger over the weaker—almost our survival of the fittest—and a -theory of inheritance of acquired characters.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -All these things show not only extensive knowledge but also an attempt -to apply such knowledge to human needs. When we consider how even in -later centuries biology was linked with medicine, and how powerful and -fundamental was the influence of the Hippocratic writings, not only -on their immediate successors in antiquity, but also on the Middle -Ages and right into the nineteenth century, we shall recognize the -significance of these developments.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_05" name="FIG_05"> </a> - <img src="images/i_012a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="445" /> - <p class="center space-below2">Fig. 5. MINOAN GOLD CUP. SIXTEENTH CENTURY <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> -</div> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_06" name="FIG_06"> </a> - <img src="images/i_012b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="487" /> - <p class="center space-below2">Fig. 6. HORSE’S HEAD. FROM PARTHENON. 440 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> -Such was the character of biological thought within the fifth century, -and a generation inspired by this movement produced some noteworthy -works in the period which immediately followed. In the treatise περὶ -τροφῆς, <i>On nourishment</i>, which may perhaps be dated about 400 -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, we learn of the pulse for the first time in -Greek medical literature, and read of a physiological system which lasted until -the time of Harvey, with the arteries arising from the heart and the veins -from the liver. Of about the same date is a work περὶ καρδίης, <i>On the -heart</i>, which describes the ventricles as well as the great vessels and -their valves, and compares the heart of animals with that of man.</p> - -<p>A little later, perhaps 390 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, is the treatise -περὶ σαρκῶν, <i>On muscles</i>, which contains much more than its title suggests. -It has the old system of sevens and, inspired perhaps by the philosophy -of Heracleitus (<i>c.</i> 540-475), describes the heart as sending air, -fire, and movement to the different parts of the body through the -vessels which are themselves constantly in movement. The infant in its -mother’s womb is believed to draw in air and fire through its mouth -and to eat <i>in utero</i>. The action of air on the blood is compared -to its action on fire. In contrast to some of the other Hippocratic -treatises the central nervous system is in the background; much -attention, however, is given to the special senses. The brain resounds -during audition. The olfactory nerves are hollow, lead to the brain, -and convey volatile substances to it which cause it to secrete mucus. -The eyes also have been examined, and their coats and humours roughly -described; an allusion, the first in literature, is perhaps made to the -crystalline lens, and the eyes of animals are compared with those of -man. There is evidence not only of dissection but of experiment, and in -efforts to compare the resistance of various tissues to such processes -as boiling, we may see the small beginning of chemical physiology. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<p>An abler work than any of these, but exhibiting less power of -observation is a treatise, περὶ γονῆς, <i>On generation</i>, that may -perhaps be dated about 380 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> -It exhibits a writer of much philosophic power, very anxious for -physiological explanations, but hampered by ignorance of physics. He -has, in fact, the weaknesses and in a minor degree the strength of -his successor Aristotle, of whose great work on generation he gives -us a foretaste. He sets forth in considerable detail a doctrine of -pangenesis, not wholly unlike that of Darwin. In order to explain the -phenomena of inheritance he supposes that vessels reach the seed, -carrying with them samples from all parts of the body. He believes -that channels pass from all the organs to the brain and then to the -spinal marrow (or to the marrow direct), thence to the kidneys and -on to the genital organs; he believes, too, that he knows the actual -location of one such channel, for he observes, wrongly, that incision -behind the ears, by interrupting the passage, leads to impotence. As an -outcome of this theory he is prepared to accept inheritance of acquired -characters. The embryo develops and breathes by material transmitted -from the mother through the umbilical cord. We encounter here also a -very detailed description of a specimen of exfoliated <i>membrana mucosa -uteri</i> which our author mistakes for an embryo, but his remarks at least -exhibit the most eager curiosity.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> -The author of this work on generation is thus a ‘biologist’ in the -modern sense, and among the passages exhibiting him in this light is -his comparison of the human embryo with the chick. ‘The embryo is in a -membrane in the centre of which is the navel through which it draws and -gives its breath, and the membranes arise from the umbilical cord.... -The structure of the child you will find from first to last as I have -already described.... If you wish, try this experiment: take twenty -or more eggs and let them be incubated by two or more hens. Then each -day from the second to that of hatching remove an egg, break it, and -examine it. You will find exactly as I say, for the nature of the bird -can be likened to that of man. The membranes [you will see] proceed -from the umbilical cord, and all that I have said on the subject of -the infant you will find in a bird’s egg, and one who has made these -observations will be surprised to find an umbilical cord in a bird’s -egg.’<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>The same interest that he exhibits for the development of -man and animals he shows also for plants.</p> - -<p class="blockquot"> ‘A seed laid in the ground fills itself with the -juices there contained, for the soil contains in itself juices of every -nature for the nourishment of plants. Thus filled with juice the seed -is distended and swells, and thereby the power (= faculty ἡ δὗύναμις) -diffused in the seed is compressed by living principle (pneuma) and -juice, and bursting the seed becomes the first leaves. But a time comes -when these leaves can no longer get nourished from the juices in the -seed. Then the seed and the leaves erupt, for urged by the leaves the -seed sends down that part of its power which is yet concentrated within -it and so the roots are produced as an extension of the leaves. When -at last the plant is well rooted below and is drawing its nutriment -from the earth, then the whole grain disappears, being absorbed, save -for the husk, which is the most solid part; and even that, decomposing -in the earth, ultimately becomes invisible. In time some of the leaves -put forth branches. The plant being thus produced by humidity from -the seed is still soft and moist. Growing actively both above and -below, it cannot as yet bear fruit, for it has not the quality of -force and reserve (δύναμις ὶσχυρὴ καὶ πιαρἀ) from which a seed can be -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -precipitated. But when, with time, the plant becomes firmer and better -rooted, it develops veins as passages both upwards and downwards, -and it draws from the soil not only water but more abundantly also -substances that are denser and fatter. Warmed, too, by the sun, these -act as a ferment to the extremities and give rise to fruit after its -kind. The fruit thus develops much from little, for every plant draws -from the earth a power more abundant than that with which it started, -and the fermentation takes place not at one place but at -many.’<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p>Nor does our author hesitate to draw an analogy between the plant and -the mammalian embryo. ‘In the same way the infant lives within its -mother’s womb and in a state corresponding to the health of the mother -... and you will find a complete similitude between the products of the -soil and the products of the womb.’</p> - -<p>The early Greek literature is so scantily provided with illustrations -drawn from botanical study, that it is worth considering the remarkable -comparison of generation of plants from cuttings with that from seeds -in the same work.</p> - -<p class="blockquot"> ‘As regards plants generated from cuttings ... -that part of a branch where it was cut from a tree is placed in the -earth and there rootlets are sent out. This is how it happens: The part -of the plant within the soil draws up juices, swells, and develops a -<i>pneuma</i> (πνεῦμα ἴσχει), but not so the part without. The pneuma and -the juice concentrate the power of the plant below so that it becomes -denser. Then the lower end erupts and gives forth tender roots. Then -the plant, taking from below, draws juices from the roots and transmits -them to the part above the soil which thus also swells and develops -pneuma; thus the power from being diffused in the plant becomes -concentrated and budding, gives forth leaves.... Cuttings, then, differ -from seeds. With a seed the leaves are borne first, then the roots are -sent down; with a cutting the roots form first and then the -leaves.’<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>But with these works of the early part of the fourth century the first -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -stage of Greek biology reaches its finest development. Later -Hippocratic treatises which deal with physiological topics are on a -lower plane, and we must seek some external cause for the failure. Nor -have we far to seek. This period saw the rise of a movement that had -the most profound influence on every department of thought. We see -the advent into the Greek world of a great intellectual movement as a -result of which the department of philosophy that dealt with nature -receded before Ethics. Of that intellectual revolution—perhaps the -greatest the world has seen—Athens was the site and Socrates (470-399) -the protagonist. With the movement itself and its characteristic fruit -we are not concerned. But the great successor and pupil of its founder -gives us in the <i>Timaeus</i> a picture of the depth to which natural -science can be degraded in the effort to give a specific teleological -meaning to all parts of the visible Universe. The book and the picture -which it draws, dark and repulsive to the mind trained in modern -scientific method, enthralled the imagination of a large part of -mankind for wellnigh two thousand years. Organic nature appears in this -work of Plato (427-347) as the degeneration of man whom the Creator has -made most perfect. The school that held this view ultimately decayed as -a result of its failure to advance positive knowledge. As the centuries -went by its views became further and further divorced from phenomena, -and the bizarre developments of later Neoplatonism stand to this day as -a warning against any system which shall neglect the investigation of -nature. But in its decay Platonism dragged science down and destroyed -by neglect nearly all earlier biological material. Mathematics, not -being a phenomenal study, suited better the Neoplatonic mood and -continued to advance, carrying astronomy with it for a while—astronomy -that affected the life of man and that soon became the handmaid of -astrology; medicine, too, that determined the conditions of man’s life, -was also cherished, though often mistakenly, but pure science was doomed. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> - -<p>But though the ethical view of nature overwhelmed science in the end, -the advent of the mighty figure of Aristotle (384-322) stayed the tide -for a time. Yet the writer on Greek Biology remains at a disadvantage -in contrast with the Historian of Greek Mathematics, of Greek -Astronomy, or of Greek Medicine, in the scantiness of the materials -for presenting an account of the development of his studies before -Aristotle. The huge form of that magnificent naturalist completely -overshadows Greek as it does much of later Biology.</p> - -<h3>§ 2. <i>Aristotle</i></h3> - -<p>With Aristotle we come in sight of the first clearly defined -personality in the course of the development of Greek biological -thought—for the attribution of the authorship of the earlier -Hippocratic writings is more than doubtful, while the personality of -the great man by whose name they are called cannot be provided with -those clear outlines that historical treatment demands.</p> - -<p>Aristotle was born in 384 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> at Stagira, a Greek -colony in the Chalcidice a few miles from the northern limit of the present -monastic settlement of Mount Athos. His father, Nicomachus, was -physician to Amyntas III of Macedonia and a member of the guild or -family of the Asclepiadae. From Nicomachus he may have inherited his -taste for biological investigation and acquired some of his methods. -At seventeen Aristotle became a pupil of Plato at Athens. After -Plato’s death in 347 Aristotle crossed the Aegean to reside at the -court of Hermias, despot of Atarneus in Mysia, whose niece, Pythias, -he married. It is not improbable that the first draft of Aristotle’s -biological works and the mass of his own observations were made during -his stay in this region, for in his biological writings much attention -is concentrated on the natural history of the Island of Lesbos, or -Mytilene, that lies close opposite to Atarneus. Investigation has -shown that in the <i>History of Animals</i> there are frequent references -to places on the northern and eastern littoral of the Aegean, and -especially to localities in the Island of Lesbos; on the other -hand places in Greece proper are but seldom mentioned.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> -Thus his biological investigations, in outline at least, are probably -the earliest of his extant works and preceded the philosophical -writings which almost certainly date from his second sojourn in Athens.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_07" name="FIG_07"> </a> - <p class="f150"><small>Fig. 7.</small> ARISTOTLE</p> - <img src="images/i_018.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="569" /> - <p class="center space-below2">From HERCULANEUM<br />Probably work of fourth - century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -In 342 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, at the request of Philip of Macedon, -Aristotle became tutor to Philip’s son, Alexander. He remained in Macedonia -for seven years and about 336, when Alexander departed for the invasion of -Asia, returned to Athens where he taught at the Lyceum and established -his famous school afterwards called the Peripatetic. Most of his works -were produced during this the closing period of his life between 335 -and 323 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> After Alexander’s death in 323 and -the break up of his empire, Aristotle, who was regarded as friendly to the -Macedonian power, was placed in a difficult position. Regarded with enmity -by the anti-Macedonian party, he withdrew from Athens and died soon after in -322 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> at Chalcis in Euboea at about sixty-two years of age.</p> - -<p class="space-below2">The scientific works to which Aristotle’s name -is attached may be divided into three groups, physical, biological, -and psychological. In size they vary from such a large treatise as the -<i>History of Animals</i> to the tiny tracts which go to make up the <i>Parva -naturalia</i>. So far as the scientific writings can be distinguished as -separate works they may be set forth as follows: -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Scientic Writings of Aristotle" cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdl bigger"><i>Physics.</i></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Physics.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾱς</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On coming into being and passing away.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ οὐρανοῡ.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On the heavens.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">μετεωρολογικά.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Meteorology.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ κόσμου.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On the universe.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[μηχανικά.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Mechanics.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ ἀτόμων γραμμῶν.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On indivisible lines.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[ἀνέμων θέσεις καὶ προσηγορίαι.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Positions and descriptions of winds.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_space-above1 bigger" colspan="2"><i>Biology in the restricted sense.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">(a) <i>Natural History</i>.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ τὰ ζῳα ἱστορίαι.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Inquiry about animals = Historia animalium.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ζῴων μορίων.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On parts of animals.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On generation of animals.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ φυτῶν.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On plants.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_space-above1">(b) <i>Physiology.</i></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ζῴων πορείας.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On progressive motion of animals.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ μακροβιότητος καὶ βραχυβιότητος.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On length and shortness of life.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ἀναπνοῆς.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On respiration.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ νεότητος καὶ γήρως.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On youth and age.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ ζῴων κινήσεως.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On motion of animals.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[φυσιογνωμονικά.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On physiognomy.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ πνεύματος.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On innate spirit.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_space-above1 bigger" colspan="2"><i>Psychology and Philosophy with biological bearing.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ψυχῆς.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On soul.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ αἰσθητῶν.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On sense and objects of sense.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On life and death.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ μνήμης καὶ ἀναμνήσεως.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On memory and reminiscence.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ὓπνου καὶ ἐγρηγόρσεως.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On sleep and waking.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">περὶ ἐνυπνίων.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On dreams.</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[προβλήματα.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>Problems.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ χρωμάτων.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On colours.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ ἀκουστῶν.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On sounds.</i>]</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1">[περὶ τῆς καθ’ ὔπνον μαντικῆς.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"><i>On prophecy in sleep.</i>]</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<p class="space-above2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -Of these works some, the names of which are placed here in brackets, -are clearly spurious in that they were neither written by Aristotle nor -are they in any form approaching that in which they were cast by him. -Yet all are of very considerable antiquity and contain fragments of -his tradition in a state of greater or less corruption. In addition to -works here enumerated there are many others which are spurious in a yet -further sense in that they are merely fathered on Aristotle and contain -no trace of his spirit or method. Such, for example, is the famous mediaeval -work of oriental origin known as the <i>Epistle of Aristotle to Alexander</i>.</p> - -<p>In a general way it may be stated that the <i>physical</i> works, with -which we are not here directly concerned, while they show ingenuity, -learning, and philosophical power, yet betray very little direct and -original observation. They have exerted enormous influence in the -past and for at least two thousand years provided the usual physical -conceptions of the civilized world both East and West. After the -Galilean revolution in physics, however, they became less regarded and -they are not now highly esteemed by men of science. The <i>biological</i> -works of Aristotle, on the other hand, excited comparatively little -interest during the Middle Ages, but from the sixteenth century on -they have been very closely studied by naturalists. From the beginning -of the nineteenth century, and especially as a result of the work of -Cuvier, Richard Owen, and Johannes Müller, Aristotle’s reputation as a -naturalist has risen steadily, and he is now universally admitted to -have been one of the very greatest investigators of living nature.</p> - -<p>The philosophical bases of Aristotle’s biology are mainly to be found -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> -in the treatise <i>On soul</i> and in that <i>On the generation of animals</i>. -His actual observations are contained in this latter work—which is in -many ways his finest scientific production—in the great collection on -the <i>History of animals</i>, and in the remarkable treatise <i>On parts of -animals</i>. Certain of his deductions concerning the nature and mechanism -of life can be found in his two works which deal with the movements of -animals (one of which is very doubtfully genuine) and in his tracts -<i>On respiration</i>, <i>On sleep</i>, &c. The treatise <i>On plants</i> and the -<i>Problems</i> in their present form are late and spurious, but they are -based on works of members of his school. They were, however, perhaps -originally prepared at the other end of the Greek world in Magna Graecia.</p> - -<p>Aristotle was a most voluminous author and his biological writings -form but a small fraction of those to which his name is attached. -Yet these biological works contain a prodigious number of first-hand -observations and it has always been difficult to understand how one -investigator could collect all these facts, however rapid his work -and skilful his methods. The explanations that have reached us from -antiquity are, indeed, picturesque, but they are neither credible in -themselves nor are they consistent with each other. Thus Pliny writing -about <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 77 says ‘Alexander the Great, -fired by desire to learn of the natures of animals, entrusted the -prosecution of this design to Aristotle.... For this end he placed at -his disposal some thousands of men in every part of Asia and Greece, -and among them hunters, fowlers, fishers, park-keepers, herds-men, -bee-wards, as well as keepers of fish-ponds and aviaries in order that -no creature might escape his notice. Through the information thus -collected he was able to compose some fifty volumes.’<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> -Athenaeus, who lived in the early part of the third century <span -class="smcap">a. d.</span>, assures us that ‘Aristotle the Stagirite -received eight hundred talents [i.e. equal to about £200,000 of our money] -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -from Alexander as his contribution towards perfecting his -<i>History of Animals</i>’.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> -Aelian, on the other hand, who lived at a period a little anterior to -Athenaeus, tells us that it was ‘Philip of Macedon who so esteemed -learning that he supplied Aristotle with ample funds’ adding that he -similarly honoured both Plato and Theophrastus.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> - -<p>Now in all Aristotle’s works there is not a single sentence in praise -of Alexander and there is some evidence that the two had become -estranged. In support of this we may quote Plutarch (<i>c.</i> <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 100) -who gives a detailed description of a conspiracy in 327 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> -against Alexander by Callisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle who appears to have kept up a correspondence -with his master.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> -Alexander himself wrote of Callisthenes, according to Plutarch: ‘I -will punish this sophist, together with those who sent him to me and -those who harbour in their cities men who conspire against my life’ -and Plutarch adds that Alexander ‘directly reveals in these words -a hostility to Aristotle in whose house Callisthenes ... had been -reared, being a son of Hero who was a niece of Aristotle’.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -Yet the Alexandrian conquests, bringing Greece into closer contact -with a wider world and extending Greek knowledge of the Orient, must -have had their influence in stimulating interest in rare and curious -creatures and in a general extension of natural knowledge. That the -interest in these topics extended beyond the circle of the Peripatetics -is shown by the fact that Speusippus, the pupil of Plato and his -successor as leader of his school, occupied himself with natural -history and wrote works on biological topics and especially on fish. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> - -<p>Nevertheless, remarkable as is Aristotle’s acquaintance with animal -forms, investigation shows that he is reliable only when treating -of creatures native to the Aegean basin. As soon as he gets outside -that area his statements are almost always founded on hearsay or even -on fable.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> -Whatever assistance Aristotle may have received in the preparation of -his biological works came, therefore, probably from no such picturesque -and distant source as the gossip of Pliny or Aelian would suggest. We -can conjecture that he received aid from the powerful relatives of his -wife at Atarneus and in Lesbos, and we may most reasonably suppose -that after his return to Athens much help would have been given him by -his pupils within the Lyceum. To them may probably be ascribed many -passages in the biological writings; for it seems hardly possible -that Aristotle himself would have had time for detailed biological -research after he had settled as a teacher in Athens. Of the work -of these members of his school a fine monument has survived in two -complete botanical treatises and fragments of others on zoological -and psychological subjects by Theophrastus of Eresus, his pupil and -successor in the leadership of the Lyceum and perhaps his literary legatee.</p> - -<p>When we turn to the Aristotelian biological works themselves we -naturally inquire first into the question of genuineness, and here -a difficulty arises in that all his extant works have come down to -us in a state that is not comparable to those of any other great -writer. Among the ancients admiration was expressed for Aristotle’s -eloquence and literary powers, but, in the material that we have here -to consider, very little trace of these qualities can be detected by -even the most lenient judge. The arrangement of the subject-matter is -far from perfect even if we allow for the gaps and disturbances caused -by their passage through many hands. Moreover, there is much repetition -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> -and often irrelevant digression, while the language is usually plain -to baldness and very frequently obscure. We find sometimes the -lightening touch of humour, but the style hardly ever rises to beauty. -Furthermore, even in matters of fact, while many observations exhibit -wonderful insight and, forestalling modern discovery, betray a most -searching and careful application of scientific methods, yet elsewhere -we find errors that are childish and could have been avoided by the -merest tyro.</p> - -<p>This curious state of the Aristotelian writings has given rise to much -discussion among scholars and to explain it there has been developed -what is known as the ‘notebook theory’. It is supposed that the -bases of the material that we possess were notebooks put together by -Aristotle himself for his own use, probably while lecturing. These -passed, it is believed, into the hands of certain of his pupils and -were perhaps in places incomprehensible as they stood. Such pupils, -after the master’s death, filled out the notebooks either from the -memory of his teaching or from their own knowledge—or ignorance. Thus -modified, however, they were still not prepared for publication, even -in the limited sense in which works may be said to have been published -in those days, but they formed again the fuller bases of notes for -lectures delivered by his successors. In this form they have finally -survived to our time, suffering, however, from certain further losses -and displacements on a larger scale. Some of the ‘Aristotelian’ works -are undoubtedly more deeply spurious, but the works that are regarded -as ‘genuine’ do not seem to have been seriously tampered with, except -by mere scribal or bookbinders’ blunders, at any date later than a -generation or two following Aristotle’s own time. These notebooks as -they stand are in fact probably in much the state in which we should -find them were we able to retrieve a copy dating from the first or -second century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -In the opening chapter of one of his great biological works Aristotle -sets forth in detail his motives for the study of living things. The -passage is in itself noteworthy as one of the few instances in which he -rises to real eloquence.</p> - -<p>‘Of things constituted by nature some are ungenerated, imperishable, -and eternal, while others are subject to generation and decay. The -former are excellent beyond compare and divine, but less accessible -to knowledge. The evidence that might throw light on them, and on the -problems which we long to solve respecting them, is furnished but -scantily by sensation; whereas respecting perishable plants and animals -we have abundant information, living as we do in their midst, and ample -data may be collected concerning all their various kinds, if only we -are willing to take sufficient pains. Both departments, however, have -their special charm. The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of -celestial things give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all -our knowledge of the world in which we live; just as a half glimpse -of persons we love is more delightful than a leisurely view of other -things, whatever their number and dimensions. On the other hand, in -certitude and in completeness our knowledge of terrestrial things has -the advantage. Moreover, their greater nearness and affinity to us -balances somewhat the loftier interest of the heavenly things that -are the objects of the higher philosophy.... For if some [creatures] -have no graces to charm the sense, yet even these, by disclosing to -intellectual perception the artistic spirit that designed them, give -immense pleasure to all who can trace links of causation, and are -inclined to philosophy. We therefore must not recoil with childish -aversion from the examination of the humbler animals. Every realm of -nature is marvellous. It is told of Heraclitus that when strangers -found him warming himself at the kitchen fire and hesitated to go in, -he bade them enter since even in the kitchen divinities were present. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -So should we venture on the study of every kind of animal without -distaste, for each and all will reveal to us something natural and -something beautiful.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> -Absence of haphazard and conduciveness of everything to an end are to -be found in Nature’s works in the highest degree, and the resultant end -of her generations and combinations is a form of the beautiful.</p> - -<p>‘If any person thinks the examination of the rest of the animal kingdom -an unworthy task, he must hold in like disesteem the study of man. For -no one can look at the primordia of the human frame—blood, flesh, -bones, vessels, and the like—without much repugnance. Moreover, when -any one of the parts or structures, be it which it may, is under -discussion, it must not be supposed that it is its material composition -to which attention is being directed or which is the object of the -discussion, but the relation of such part to the total form....</p> - -<p>‘As every instrument and every bodily member subserves some partial -end, that is to say, some special action, so the whole body must be -destined to minister to some plenary sphere of action. Thus the saw is -made for sawing, since sawing is a function, and not sawing for the -saw. Similarly, the body too must somehow or other be made for the -soul, and each part of it for some subordinate function to which it is -adapted.’<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p>Aristotle is, in the fullest sense a ‘vitalist’. He believes that the -presence of a certain peculiar principle of a non-material character -is essential for the exhibition of any of the phenomena of life. This -principle we may call <i>soul</i>, translating his word ψυχή. Living things, -like all else in nature, have, according to Aristotle, an end or -object. ‘Everything that Nature makes,’ he says, ‘is means to an end. -For just as human creations are the products of art, so living objects -are manifestly the products of an analogous cause or principle.... And -that the heaven, if it had an origin, was evolved and is maintained by -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -such a cause, there is, therefore, even more reason to believe, than -that mortal animals so originated. For order and definiteness are -much more manifest in the celestial bodies than in our own -frame.’<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> -It was a misinterpretation of this view that especially endeared him -to the mediaeval Church and made it possible to absorb Aristotelian -philosophy into Christian theology. It must be remembered that the -cause or principle that leads to the development of living things is in -Aristotle’s view, not external but <i>internal</i>.</p> - -<p>While putting his own view Aristotle does not fail to tell us of the -standpoint of his opponents. ‘Why, however, it must be asked, should -we look on the operations of Nature as dictated by a final cause, and -intended to realize some desirable end? Why may they not be merely the -results of necessity, just as the rain falls of necessity, and not -that the corn may grow? For though the rain makes the corn grow, it no -more occurs in order to cause that growth, than a shower which spoils -the farmer’s crop at harvest-time occurs in order to do that mischief. -Now, why may not this, which is true of the rain, be true also of the -parts of the body? Why, for instance, may not the teeth grow to be such -as they are merely of necessity, and the fitness of the front ones -with their sharp edge for the comminution of the food, and of the hind -ones with their flat surface for its mastication, be no more than an -accidental coincidence, and not the cause that has determined their -development?’<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>The answers to these questions form a considerable part of Aristotle’s -philosophy where we are unable to follow him. For the limited field of -biology, however, the question is on somewhat narrower lines. ‘What,’ -he asks, ‘are the forces by which the hand or the body was fashioned -into shape? The wood carver will perhaps say, by the axe or the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> -auger.... But it is not enough for him to say that by the stroke of his -tool this part was formed into a concavity, that into a flat surface; -but he must state the reasons why he struck his blow in such a way as -to effect this and what his final object was ... [similarly] the true -method [of biological science] is to state what the definite characters -are that distinguish the animal as a whole; to explain what it is both -in substance and in form, and to deal after the same fashion with its -several organs.... If now this something, that constitutes the form of -the living being, be the soul, or part of the soul, or something that, -without the soul, cannot exist, (as would seem to be the case, seeing -at any rate that when the soul departs, what is left is no longer a -living animal, and that none of the parts remain what they were before, -excepting in mere configuration, like the animals that in the fable -are turned into stone;) ... then it will come within the province of -the natural philosopher to inform himself concerning the soul, and to -treat of it, either in its entirety, or, at any rate, of that part of -it which constitutes the essential character of an animal; and it will -be his duty to say what this soul or this part of a soul is.’<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> -Thus in the Aristotelian writings the discussion of the nature and orders -of ‘soul’ is almost inseparable from the subjects now included under the -term Biology.</p> - -<p>There can be no doubt that through much of the Aristotelian writings -runs a belief in a <i>kinetic</i> as distinct from a static view of -existence. It cannot be claimed that he regarded the different kinds of -living things as actually passing one into another, but there can be no -doubt that he fully realized that the different kinds can be arranged -in a series in which the gradations are easy. His scheme would be -something like that represented on p. 30 (<a href="#FIG_07A">Fig. 7 a</a>).</p> - -<p>‘Nature,’ he says, ‘proceeds little by little from things lifeless to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact -line of demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form -should lie. Thus, next after lifeless things in the upward scale comes -the plant, and of plants one will differ from another as to its amount -of apparent vitality; and, in a word, the whole <i>genus</i> of plants, -whilst it is devoid of life as compared with an animal, is endowed -with life as compared with other corporeal entities. Indeed, there is -observed in plants a continuous scale of ascent towards the animal. So, -in the sea, there are certain objects concerning which one would be at -a loss to determine whether they be animal or vegetable.’<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_07A" name="FIG_07A"> </a> - <img src="images/i_030.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="390" /> - <p class="center space-below2">Fig. 7a. The Order of Living Things according to Aristotle.</p> -</div> - -<p>‘A sponge, in these respects completely resembles a plant, in that ... -it is attached to a rock, and that when separated from this it dies. -Slightly different from the sponges are the so-called Holothurias ... -as also sundry other sea-animals that resemble them. For these are free -and unattached, yet they have no feeling, and their life is simply that -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -of a plant separated from the ground. For even among land-plants there -are some that are independent of the soil—or even entirely free. -Such, for example, is the plant which is found on Parnassus, and which -some call the Epipetrum [probably <i>Sempervivum tectorum</i>, the common -houseleek]. This you may hang up on a peg and it will yet live for a -considerable time. Sometimes it is a matter of doubt whether a given -organism should be classed with plants or with animals. The Tethya, -for instance, and the like, so far resemble plants as that they never -live free and unattached, but, on the other hand, inasmuch as they have -a certain flesh-like substance, they must be supposed to possess some -degree of sensibility.’<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>‘The Acalephae or Sea-nettles, ... lie outside the recognized groups. -Their constitution, like that of the Tethya, approximates them on the -one side to plants, on the other side to animals. For seeing that some -of them can detach themselves and can fasten on their food, and that -they are sensible of objects which come in contact with them, they must -be considered to have an animal nature.... On the other hand, they -are closely allied to plants, firstly by the imperfection of their -structures, secondly by their being able to attach themselves to the -rocks, which they do with great rapidity, and lastly by their having no -visible residuum notwithstanding that they possess a mouth.’<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>Thus ‘Nature passes from lifeless objects to animals in such unbroken -sequence, interposing between them beings which live and yet are not -animals, that scarcely any difference seems to exist between two -neighbouring groups owing to their close proximity.’<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> -Some approach to evolutionary doctrine is also foreshadowed by -Aristotle in his theories of the development of the individual. This is -obscured, however, by his peculiar view of the nature of procreation. -On this topic his general conclusion is that the material substance -of the embryo is contributed by the female, but that this is mere -passive formable material, almost as though it were the soil in which -the embryo grows. The male by giving the principle of life, the soul, -contributes the essential generative agency. But this <i>soul</i> is not -material and it is, therefore, not theoretically necessary for anything -material to pass from male to female. The material which does in fact -so pass with the seed of the male is an accident, not an essential, for -the essential contribution of the male is not matter but <i>form</i> and -<i>principle</i>. The female provides the <i>material</i>, the male the <i>soul</i>, -the <i>form</i>, the <i>principle</i>, that which makes life. Aristotle was thus -prepared to accept instances of fertilization without material contact.</p> - -<p>‘The female does not contribute semen to generation but does contribute -something ... for there must needs be that which generates and that -from which it generates.... If, then, the male stands for the effective -and active, and the female, considered as female, for the passive, it -follows that what the female would contribute to the semen of the male -would not be semen but material for the semen to work upon....</p> - -<p>‘How is it that the male contributes to generation, and how is it -that the semen from the male is the cause of the offspring? Does [the -semen] exist in the body of the embryo as a part of it from the first, -mingling with the material which comes from the female? Or does the -semen contribute nothing to the material body of the embryo but only to -the power and movement in it?... The latter alternative appears to be -the right one both <i>a priori</i> and in view of the facts.’<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>This discussion leads to the question of the natural process of -generation itself. It is a topic that we have seen discussed by an -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -earlier writer who had set forth a sort of doctrine of pangenesis -(<a href="#Page_14">see p. 14</a>). His view Aristotle declines to share. ‘We must’, -he says, ‘say the opposite of what the ancients said. For whereas they said that -semen is that which <i>comes from all</i> the body, we shall say that it -is that whose nature is to <i>go to all</i> of it, and what they thought a -waste-product seems rather to be a secretion.’ According to Aristotle -semen is derived from the same nutritive material in the blood vessels -that is distributed to the rest of the body. The semen, however, is -strained or secreted off from this nutritive material—as being its -most essential and representative portion—before the distribution -actually takes place.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> -But why, it may be asked, if the semen does not come from the various -parts of the body, is it yet able to reproduce those various parts? -The answer, on the Aristotelian view, seems to be that the semen -contains special and peculiar fractions of the nutritive fluid which -have been so modified and adapted that, if not secreted off as semen, -they would be distributed to the different parts of the body to nourish -each of these various parts. These substances have been elaborated by -the <i>soul</i> or vital principle in a manner that is specifically suited -for each organ, hand, liver, face, heart, &c., and from each of -these specific substances a specific essence is separated off into the -semen corresponding to hand, liver, face, heart, &c., of the offspring.</p> - -<p>The next question that arises is the mechanism by which the offspring -come to resemble their parents. The mechanism in the case of -inheritance from the father is comprehensible when we consider the -origin and nature of the semen, but the inheritance from the mother -requires further explanation. The view of Aristotle is based upon the -nature of the catamenia and their disappearance during gestation. ‘The -catamenia’, in his view, ‘are a secretion as the semen is.’<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> -The female contributes the material by which the embryo grows and she does -this through the catamenia which are suspended during gestation for -this very purpose. The matter is thus summed up by Aristotle.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> -‘The male does not emit semen at all in some animals, and where he -does, this is no part of the resulting embryo; just so no material part -comes from the carpenter to the material, i.e. to the wood in which he -works, nor does any part of the carpenter’s art exist within what he -makes, but the shape and the form are imparted from him to the material -by means of the motion he sets up. It is his hands that move his tools, -his tools that move the material; it is his knowledge of his art, and -his <i>soul</i>, in which is the form, that move his hands or any other -part of him with a motion of some definite kind, a motion varying with -the varying nature of the object made. In like manner, in the male of -those animals which emit semen, Nature uses the semen as a tool and as -possessing motion in actuality, just as tools are used in the products -of any art, for in them lies in a certain sense the motion of the -art.’<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> - -<p>‘For the same reason the development of the embryo takes place in the -female; neither the male himself nor the female emits semen into the -female, but the female receives within herself the share contributed -by both, because in the female is the material from which is made -the resulting product. Not only must the mass of material from which -the embryo is in the first instance formed exist there, but further -material must constantly be added so that the embryo may increase -in size. Therefore the birth must take place in the female. For the -carpenter must keep in close connexion with his timber and the potter -with his clay, and generally all workmanship and the ultimate movement -imparted to matter must be connected with the material concerned, as, -for instance, architecture is <i>in</i> the buildings it makes.’<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -The problem of the nature of generation is one in which Aristotle never -ceased to take an interest, and among the methods by which he sought to -solve it was embryological investigation. In his ideas on the methods -of reproduction we must seek also the main bases of such classification -of animals as he exhibits. His most important embryological researches -were made upon the chick. He asserts that the first signs of -development are noticeable on the third day, the heart being visible -as a palpitating blood-spot whence, as it develops, two meandering -blood vessels extend to the surrounding tunics.</p> - -<p>‘Generation from the egg’, he says, ‘proceeds in an identical manner -with all birds.... With the common hen after three days and nights -there is the first indication of the embryo.... The heart appears like -a speck of blood in the white of the egg. This point beats and moves as -though endowed with life, and from it two vessels with blood in them -trend in a convoluted course ... and a membrane carrying bloody fibres -now envelops the yolk, leading off from the vessels.’<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p>Aristotle lays considerable stress on the early appearance of the heart -in the embryo. Corresponding to the general gradational view that he -had formed of Nature, he held that the most primitive and fundamentally -important organs make their appearance before the others. Among the -organs all give place to the heart, which he considered ‘the first to -live and the last to die’.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> - -<p>A little later he observed that the body had become distinguishable, -and was at first very small and white.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> -‘The head is clearly distinguished and in it the eyes, swollen out to -a great extent.... At the outset the under portion of the body appears -insignificant in comparison with the upper portion....</p> - -<p>‘When an egg is ten days old the chick and all its parts are distinctly -visible. The head still is larger than the rest of the body and the -eyes larger than the head. At this time also the larger internal -organs are visible, as also the stomach and the arrangement of the -viscera; and the vessels that seem to proceed from the heart are now -close to the navel. From the navel there stretch a pair of vessels, -one [vitelline vein] towards the membrane that envelops the yolk, -and the other [allantoic vein] towards that membrane which envelops -collectively the membrane wherein the chick lies, the membrane of the -yolk and the intervening liquid.... About the twentieth day, if you -open the egg and touch the chick, it moves inside and chirps; and it is -already coming to be covered with down when, after the twentieth day, -the chick begins to break the shell.’<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> - -<p>Aristotle recognized a distinction in the mode of development of -mammals from that of all other viviparous creatures. Having divided the -apparently viviparous animals into two groups, one of which is truly -and internally and the other only externally viviparous, he pointed -out that in the mammalia, the group regarded by him as internally -viviparous, the foetus is connected until birth with the wall of -the mother’s womb by the navel-string. These animals, in his view, -produce their young without the intervention of an ovum, the embryo -being ‘living from the first’. Such non-mammals, on the other hand, as -are viviparous are so in the external sense only, that is, the young -which he considered to arise in this group from ova may indeed develop -within the mother’s womb and be born alive, but they go through their -development without organic connexion with the mother’s body, so that -her womb acts but as a nursery or incubator for her eggs. It was indeed -a sort of accident among the ovipara whether in any particular species -the ovum went through its development inside or outside the mother’s -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> -body. ‘Some of the ovipara’, he says, ‘produce the egg in a perfect, -others in an imperfect state, but it is perfected outside the body as -has been stated of fish.’<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> - -<p>Yet though Aristotle regarded fish as an oviparous group, he knew -also of kinds of fish that were externally viviparous. It is most -interesting to observe, moreover, that he was acquainted with one -particular instance among fish in which matters were less simple and -in which the development bore an analogy to that of the mammalia, his -true internal vivipara. ‘Some animals’, he says, ‘are viviparous, -others oviparous, others vermiparous. Some are viviparous, such as man, -the horse, the seal and all other animals that are hair-coated, and, -of marine animals, the Cetaceans, as the dolphin, <i>and the so-called -Selachia</i>.’<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p>Aristotle tells us elsewhere that a species of these Selachia which -he calls <i>galeos</i>—a name still used for the dog-fish by Greek -fishermen—‘has its eggs in betwixt the [two horns of the] womb; these -eggs shift into each of the two horns of the womb and descend, and the -young develop with the navel-string attached to the womb, so that, -as the egg-substance gets used up, the embryo is sustained to all -appearances just as in quadrupeds. The navel-string is ... attached -as it were by a sucker, and also to the centre of the embryo in the -place where the liver is situated.... Each embryo, as in the case of -quadrupeds, is provided with a chorion and separate membranes.’<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> - -<p>The remarkable anatomical relationship of the embryo of <i>Galeus</i> -(<i>Mustelus</i>) <i>laevis</i> to its mother’s womb was little noticed by -naturalists until the whole matter was taken up by Johannes Müller -about 1840.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> -That great observer demonstrated the complete accuracy -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> -of Aristotle’s description and the justice of his comparison to and -contrast with the mammalian mode of development.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> -The work of Johannes Müller at once had the effect of drawing -the attention of naturalists to the importance and value of the -Aristotelian biological observations.</p> - -<p>Aristotle attempts to explain the viviparous character of the -Selachians. His explanation has perhaps little meaning for the modern -biologist, just as many of our scientific explanations will seem -meaningless to our successors. But such explanations are often worth -consideration not only as stages in the historical development of -scientific thought, but also as illustrating the fact that while the -ultimate object of science is a <i>description</i> of nature, the immediate -motive of the best scientific work is usually an <i>explanation</i> of -nature. Yet it is usually the descriptive, not the explanatory element -that bears the test of time.</p> - -<p>‘Birds and scaly reptiles’, says Aristotle, ‘because of their heat -produce a perfect egg, but because of their dryness it is only an -egg. The cartilaginous fishes have less heat than these but more -moisture, so that they are intermediate, for they are both oviparous -and viviparous within themselves, the former because they are cold, the -latter because of their moisture; for moisture is vivifying, whereas -dryness is farthest removed from what has life. Since they have neither -feathers nor scales such as either reptiles or other fishes have, all -of which are signs rather of a dry and earthy nature, the egg they -produce is soft; for the earthy matter does not come to the surface in -their eggs any more than in themselves. That is why they lay eggs in -themselves, for if the egg were laid externally it would be destroyed, -having no protection.’<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>This explanation is based on Aristotle’s fundamental doctrine of the -opposite <i>qualities</i>, heat, cold, wetness, and dryness, that are -found combined in pairs in the four <i>elements</i>, earth, air, fire, -and water.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -The theory was of the utmost importance for the whole subsequent -development of science and was not displaced until quite modern -times. It was not an original conception of Aristotle, for something -resembling it had been set forth long before his time in figurative -language by Empedocles (<i>c.</i> 500-<i>c.</i> 430 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), -as Aristotle himself tells us.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> -The same view had been foreshadowed by Pythagoras (<i>c.</i> 580-<i>c.</i> 490 -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span>) at an even earlier date and was -perhaps of much greater antiquity. But Aristotle developed the doctrine -and was the main channel for its conveyance to later ages, so that -his name will always be associated with it. Matter in general and -living matter in particular was held by him to be composed of these -four essential so-called <i>elements</i> (στοιχεῑ), each of which is in -turn compounded from two of the primary <i>qualities</i> (δυνάμεις) which -Aristotle brought into relation with the elements. Thus earth was cold -and dry, water cold and wet, air hot and wet, and fire hot and dry (<a href="#FIG_07B">Fig. 7b</a>).</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_07B" name="FIG_07B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_039.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="389" /> - <p class="center space-below2">Fig. 7b. The Four Elements and the Four Qualities.</p> -</div> - -<p>The theory of the elements and qualities is applicable to all matter -and not specially to living things. The distinction between the -living and not-living is to be sought not so much in its material -constitution, but in the presence or absence of ‘soul’, and his -teaching on that topic is to be found in his great work περὶ ψυχῆς, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -<i>On Soul</i>. He does not think of matter as organic or inorganic—that -is a distinction of the seventeenth century physiologists—nor does he think -of things as divided into animal, vegetable, and mineral—that is a -distinction of the mediaeval alchemists,—but he thinks of things as -either with soul or without soul (ἔμψυχα or ἄαψυχα).</p> - -<p>His belief as to the relationship of this soul to material things is a -difficult and complicated subject which would take us far beyond the -topics included in biological writings to-day, but he tells us that -‘there is a class of existent things which we call substance, including -under that term, firstly, matter, which in itself is not this nor that; -secondly, shape or form, in virtue of which the term this or that is -at once applied; thirdly, the whole made up of matter and form. Matter -is identical with potentiality, form with actuality,’ the soul being, -in living things, that which gives the form or actuality. ‘Of natural -bodies’, he continues, ‘some possess life and some do not: where by -life we mean the power of self-nourishment and of independent growth -and decay’.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> -It should here be noted that in the Aristotelian sense the ovum is -not at first a living thing, for in its earliest stage and before -fertilization it does not possess soul even in its most elementary form.</p> - -<p>‘The term life is used in various senses, and, if life is present in -but a single one of these senses, we speak of a thing as living. Thus -there is intellect, sensation, motion from place to place and rest, the -motion concerned with nutrition, and, further, [there are the processes -of] decay and growth,’ all various meanings or at least exhibitions -of some form of life. Hence even ‘plants are supposed to have life, -for they have within themselves a faculty and principle whereby they -grow and decay.... They grow and continue to live so long as they are -capable of absorbing nutriment. This form of life can be separated from -the others ... and plants have no other faculty of soul at all,’ but -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> -only this lowest vegetative soul. ‘It is then in virtue of this -principle that all living things live, whether animals or plants. But -it is sensation which primarily constitutes the animal. For, provided -they have sensation, even those creatures that are devoid of movement -and do not change their place are called animals.... As the nutritive -faculty may exist without touch or any form of sensation, so also touch -may exist apart from other senses.’<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> -Apart from these two lower forms of soul, the <i>vegetative</i> or nutritive -and reproductive and the <i>animal</i> or sensitive, stands the <i>rational</i> -or intellectual soul peculiar to man, a form of soul with which we -shall here hardly concern ourselves.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> - -<p>The possession of one or more of the three types of soul, vegetative, -sensitive, and rational, provides in itself a basis for an elementary -form of arrangement of living things in an ascending scale. We -have already seen that Aristotle certainly describes something -resembling a ‘Scala Naturae’ and that such a scheme can easily be -drawn up from passages in his works. It may, however, be doubted -whether his phraseology is capable of extension so as to include a -true <i>classification</i> of animals in any modern sense. It is true -that he repeatedly divides animals into classes, <i>Sanguineous</i> and -<i>Non-sanguineous</i>, <i>Oviparous</i> and <i>Viviparous</i>, <i>Terrestrial</i> -and <i>Aquatic</i>, &c., but his divisions are for the most part simply -dichotomic. He certainly defines a few groups of animals as the Lophura -(<i>Equidae</i>), the Cete (<i>Cetacea</i>), and the Selache (<i>Elasmobranchiae</i> -together with the <i>Lophiidae</i>) in a way that fairly corresponds -to similar groups in later systems. In most cases, however, his -definitions are not exact enough for modern needs, for the same animal -may fall into more than one of his classes and widely different animals -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -into the same class. Thus he invents a category <i>Carcharodonta</i> for -animals with sharp interlocking teeth and includes in it carnivores, -reptiles, and fish; again, the horse kind must be included both among -his <i>Anepallacta</i> or animals having flat crowned teeth as well as among -the <i>Amphodonta</i> or animals with front teeth in both jaws. Such words -as these are really terms of <i>description</i>, not of classification in -the modern biological sense of that word.</p> - -<p>There are, however, scattered through the biological works, certain -terms which are applied to animal groups and organs and are defined in -such a way as to suggest that they might ultimately have been developed -for classificatory purposes. Thus his lowest group is the <i>species</i>. -‘The individuals comprised within a single <i>species</i> (εîδος) ... are -the real existences; but inasmuch as these individuals possess one -common specific form, it will suffice to state the universal attributes -of the species, that is, the attributes common to all its individuals, -once and for all.’<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> This is surely not very far removed from the -modern biological conception of a species.</p> - -<p>‘But as regards the larger groups—such as birds—which comprehend many -species, there may be a question. For on the one hand it may be urged -that as the ultimate species represent the real existences, it will be -well, if practicable, to examine these ultimate species separately, -just as we examine the species Man separately; to examine, that is, not -the whole class Birds collectively, but the Ostrich, the Crane, and the -other indivisible groups or species belonging to the class.</p> - -<p>‘On the other hand, this course would involve repeated mention of the -same attribute, as the same attribute is common to many species, and so -far would be somewhat irrational and tedious. Perhaps, then, it will be -best to treat generically the universal attributes of the groups that -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -have a common nature and contain closely allied subordinate forms, -whether they are groups recognized by a true instinct of mankind, -such as Birds and Fishes, or groups not popularly known by a common -appellation, but withal composed of closely allied subordinate groups; -and only to deal individually with the attributes of a single species, -when such species—man, for instance, and any other such, if such there -be—stands apart from others, and does not constitute with them a -larger natural group.</p> - -<p>‘It is generally similarity in the shape of particular organs, or of -the whole body, that has determined the formation of the larger groups. -It is in virtue of such a similarity that Birds, Fishes, Cephalopoda, -and Testacea have been made to form each a separate <i>genus</i> (γένος). -For within the limits of each such <i>genus</i>, the parts do not differ -in that they have no nearer resemblance than that of analogy—such as -exists between the bone of man and the spine of fish—but they differ -merely in respect of such corporeal conditions as largeness smallness, -softness hardness, smoothness roughness, and other similar oppositions, -or, in one word, in respect of degree.’<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> - -<p>The Aristotelian <i>genus</i> thus differs widely from the term as used in -modern biology. In another passage he comes nearer to defining it and -the analogy of parts which extends from genus to genus.</p> - -<p>‘Groups that differ only in the degree, and in the more or less of -an identical element that they possess are aggregated together under -a single <i>genus</i>; groups whose attributes are not identical but -<i>analogous</i> are separated. For instance, bird differs from bird by -gradation, or by excess and defect; some birds have long feathers, -others short ones, but all are feathered. Bird and Fish are more remote -and only agree in having analogous organs; for what in the bird is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -feather, in the fish is scale. Such <i>analogies</i> can scarcely, however, -serve universally as indications for the formation of groups, for -almost all animals present analogies in their corresponding parts.’<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> - -<p>Aristotle nowhere gives to his term <i>genus</i> a rigid application that -can be applied throughout the animal kingdom. He uses the word in fact -much as we should use the conveniently flexible term <i>group</i>, now -for a larger and less definite, now for a smaller and more definite -collection of species. This varying use of a technical word makes it -impossible to draw up a classification based on his <i>genera</i> or indeed -with any consistent use of the terms which he actually employs.</p> - -<p class="space-below2">The difficulty or impossibility of drawing up a satisfactory -classificatory system from the Aristotelian writings has not, however, -deterred numerous naturalists and scholars from making the attempt, -and the subject has in itself a considerable history and literature<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> -extending from the days of Edward Wotton (1492-1555) downward.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> -The more recent efforts at drawing up an Aristotelian classificatory system -have been based on the methods of reproduction to which he certainly -attached very great importance.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> -Provided that it be remembered that Aristotle does not himself detail -any such system there can be no harm in constructing one from his -works. At worst it will serve as a <i>memoria technica</i> for the extent -and character of his knowledge of natural history, and at best it may -represent a scheme to which he was tending. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Aristotelian Classificatory System" cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="6"><b><i>ENAIMA</i></b> (<i>Sanguineous and either viviparous oroviparous</i>)</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1" colspan="6">  = <i>vertebrates</i>.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="3" rowspan="10">Viviparous in the<br />internal sense.</td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="10"><img src="images/cbl-9.jpg" alt="" width="46" height="196" /></td> - <td class="tdc">1.</td> - <td class="tdl">ἅνθρωπος. Man.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc">2.</td> - <td class="tdl">κήτη. Cetaceans.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc">3.</td> - <td class="tdl">ζῷα τετράποδα ζωοτόκα ὲν αὑτοῖς.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">   Viviparous quadrupeds.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (a) μὴ ἀμφώδοντα. Non-amphodonts</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">  = Ruminants with incisor in lower</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">   jaw only and with cloven hoofs.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (b) μώνυχα. Solid-hoofed animals.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">  i. λόφουρα. Equidae.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> ii. μώνυχα ἔτερα. Other solid-hoofed animals.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2" rowspan="3"> </td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="9"><img src="images/cbl-9.jpg" alt="" width="46" height="196" /></td> - <td class="tdc">4.</td> - <td class="tdl">ὄρνιθες. Birds.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (a) γαμψώνυχα. Birds of prey with talons.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (b) στεγανόποδες. Swimmers with webbed feet.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="2"> </td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="10"><img src="images/cbl-9.jpg" alt="" width="46" height="196" /></td> - <td class="tdl_bott">With</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (c) περιστεροειδῆ. Pigeons, doves, &c.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">perfect</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (d) ἄποδες. Swifts, martins, &c.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_top">Oviparous</td> - <td class="tdl">ovum.</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (e) ὄρνιθες ἕτεροι. Other birds.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdc">though</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc">5.</td> - <td class="tdl">ζὌῷα τετράποδα ῷοτόκα. Oviparous quadrupeds</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">sometimes</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">  = Amphibians and most reptiles.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>externally</i></td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc">6.</td> - <td class="tdl">ὀφιώδη. Serpents.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">viviparous.</td> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="4"><img src="images/cbl-4.jpg" alt="" width="23" height="82" /></td> - <td class="tdc">7.</td> - <td class="tdl">ἰχθύες. Fishes.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl_bott">With</td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (a) σελάχη. Selachians. Cartilaginous fishes</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl">imperfect</td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl">   and, doubtfully, the fishing-frog.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdl_top">ovum.</td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl"> (b) ιχθύες ἕτεροι. Other fishes.</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<p class="space-below2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Aristotelian Classificatory System" cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4"><b><i>ANAIMA</i></b> (Non-sanguineous and either viviparous, vermiparous or budding)</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1" colspan="4">  = <i>Invertebrates</i></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl" rowspan="2">With perfect ovum.</td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/cbl-2.jpg" alt="" width="9" height="32" /></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> 8.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">μαλάκια. Cephalopods.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> 9.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">μαλακόστρακα. Crustaceans.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">With ‘scolex’.</td> - <td class="tdc"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">10.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">ἔντομα. Insects, spiders, scorpions, &c.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_bott">With generative</td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="3"><img src="images/cbr-3.jpg" alt="" width="16" height="57" /></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">11.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">ὀστρακόδερμα.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">slime, buds or</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  Molluscs (except Cephalopods),</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl_top">spontaneous generation.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">  Echinoderms, &c.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">With spontaneous</td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/cbr-2.jpg" alt="" width="9" height="32" /></td> - <td class="tdl_ws1" rowspan="2">12.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1" rowspan="2">ζωόφυτα. Sponges, Coelenterates, &c.</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">generation only.</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<p class="space-above2">Some of the elements in this classification are fundamentally -unsatisfactory in that they are based on negative characters. Such -is the group of <i>Anaima</i> which is parallelled by our own equally -convenient and negative though morphologically meaningless equivalent -<i>Invertebrata</i>. Others, such as the subdivisions of the viviparous -quadrupeds, can only be forcibly extracted out of Aristotle’s text. -But there are yet others, such as the separation of the cartilaginous -from the bony fishes, that exhibit true genius and betray a knowledge -that can only have been reached by careful investigation. Remarkably -brilliant too is his treatment of Molluscs. There can be no doubt that -he dissected the bodies and carefully watched the habits of octopuses -and squids, <i>Malacia</i> as he calls them. He separates them too far from -the other Molluscs, grouped by him as <i>Ostracoderma</i>, but his actual -descriptions of the structure and sexual process of the cephalopods -are exceedingly remarkable, and after being long disregarded or -misunderstood were verified and repeated in the course of the -nineteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> - -<p>Passing from his general ideas on the nature and division of living -creatures we may turn to some of the most noteworthy of his actual -observations. In the realm of comparative anatomy proper we may -instance that of the stomach of ruminants. He must have dissected these -animals, for he gives a clear and correct account of the four chambers. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -‘Animals’, he says, ‘present diversities in the structure of their -stomachs. Of the viviparous quadrupeds, such of the horned animals as -are not equally furnished with teeth in both jaws are furnished with -four such chambers. These animals are those that are said to chew the -cud. In these animals the oesophagus extends from the mouth downwards -along the lung, from the midriff to the <i>big stomach</i> [<i>rumen</i>, or -paunch], and this stomach is rough inside and semi-partitional. And -connected with it near to the entry of the oesophagus is what is -called the <i>kekryphalos</i> [<i>reticulum</i>, or honeycomb bag]; for outside -it is like the stomach, but inside it resembles a netted cap; and the -kekryphalos is a good deal smaller than the <i>big stomach</i>.’ The term -<i>kekryphalos</i> was applied to the net that women wore over their hair -to keep it in order. ‘Connected with this kekryphalos,’ he continues, -‘is the <i>echinos</i> [<i>psalterium</i>, or <i>manyplies</i>], rough inside and -laminated, and of about the same size as the kekryphalos. Next after -this comes what is called the <i>enystron</i> [<i>abomasum</i>], larger and -longer than the echinos, furnished inside with numerous folds or -ridges, large and smooth. After all this comes the gut....’<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> -‘All animals that have horns, the sheep for instance, the ox, the goat, the -deer and the like, have these several stomachs.... The several cavities -receive the food one from the other in succession: the first taking the -unreduced substances, the second the same when somewhat reduced, the -third when reduction is complete, and the fourth when the whole has -become a smooth pulp....’<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> -‘Such is the stomach of those quadrupeds that are horned and have an -unsymmetrical dentition (μὴ ἀμφώδοντα); and these animals differ one -from another in the shape and size of the parts, and in the fact of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -oesophagus reaching the stomach central-wise in some cases and sideways -in others. Animals that are furnished equally with teeth in both jaws -(ἀμφώδοντα) have one stomach; as man, the pig, the dog, the bear, the -lion, the wolf.’<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p>A very famous example in the Aristotelian works anticipating modern -biological knowledge is afforded by his reference to the mode of -reproduction of the cephalopods. ‘The Malacia such as the octopus, -the sepia, and the calamary, have sexual intercourse all in the same -way; that is to say, they unite at the mouth by an interlacing of -their tentacles. When, then, the octopus rests its so-called head -against the ground and spreads abroad its tentacles, the other sex -fits into the outspreading of these tentacles, and the two sexes then -bring their suckers into mutual connexion. Some assert that the male -has a kind of penis in one of his tentacles, the one in which are the -largest suckers; and they further assert that the organ is tendinous -in character growing attached right up to the middle of the tentacle, -and that the latter enables it to enter the nostril or funnel of the -female.’<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> - -<p>The reproductive processes of the Cephalopods were unknown to modern -naturalists until the middle of the nineteenth century. Before that -time several observers had noted the occasional presence of a peculiar -parasite in the mantle cavity of female cephalopods and had described -its supposed structure without tracing any relationship to the process -of generation. In 1851 it was first shown that this supposed parasite -was the arm of the male animal specially modified for reproductive -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> -purposes and broken off on insertion into the mantle cavity of the -female<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>. -The actual process of reproduction does not seem to have been observed -until 1894<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>.</p> - -<p>Aristotle is perhaps at his best and happiest when describing the -habits of living animals that he has himself observed. Among his most -pleasing accounts are those of the fishing-frog and torpedo. In these -creatures he did not fail to notice the displacement of the fins -associated with the depressed form of the body.</p> - -<p>‘In marine creatures,’ he says, ‘one may observe many ingenious devices -adapted to the circumstances of their lives. For the account commonly -given of the frog-fish or angler is quite true; as is also that of the -torpedo....</p> - -<p>‘In the Torpedo and the Fishing-frog the breadth of the anterior part -of the body is not so great as to render locomotion by fins impossible, -but in consequence of it the upper pair [<i>pectorals</i>] are placed -further back and the under pair [<i>ventrals</i>] are placed close to the -head, while to compensate for this advancement they are reduced in size -so as to be smaller than the upper ones.</p> - -<p>‘In the Torpedo the two upper fins [pectorals] are placed in the tail, -and the fish uses the broad expansion of its body to supply their -place, each lateral half of its circumference serving the office of a -fin.... The torpedo narcotizes the creatures that it wants to catch, -overpowering them by the force of shock that is resident in its body, -and feeds upon them; it also hides in the sand and mud, and catches -all the creatures that swim in its way and come under its narcotizing -influence. This phenomenon has been actually observed in operation.... -The torpedo-fish is known to cause a numbness even in human beings. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘The frog-fish has a set of filaments that project in front of its -eyes; they are long and thin, like hairs, and are round at the tips; -they lie on either side, and are used as baits.... The little creatures -on which this fish feeds swim up to the filaments, taking them for bits -of seaweed such as they feed upon. Accordingly, when the frog-fish -stirs himself up a place where there is plenty of sand and mud and -conceals himself therein, it raises the filaments, and when the little -fish strike against them the frog-fish draws them in underneath into -its mouth.... That the creatures get their living by this means is -obvious from the fact that, whereas they are peculiarly inactive, -they are often caught with mullets, the swiftest of fishes, in their -interior. Furthermore, the frog-fish is usually thin when he is caught -after losing the tips of his filaments.’<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p>The modification of the musculature of the torpedo-fish for electric -purposes and the fishing habits of the fishing-frog or <i>Lophius</i> are -now well known, but it was many centuries before naturalists had -confirmed the observations of the father of biology.</p> - -<p>When we turn from Aristotle’s observations in the department of natural -history to his discussion of the actual mechanism of the living body, -the subject now contained under the heading <i>Experimental Physiology</i>, -we are in the presence of much less satisfactory material. Aristotle -here exhibits his weakness in physics and not being endowed with any -experimental knowledge of that subject his physiological development is -very greatly handicapped. He seems often to accept fancies of his own -in place of generalizations from collated observations. This tendency -of his was conveyed to his successors and delayed physiological advance -for many centuries. It forms a striking contrast to the method of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -certain of the Hippocratic works such as the <i>Epidemics</i> and the -<i>Aphorisms</i> which exhibit an investigator intent on recording -actual observations and on deducing general laws therefrom. Had the -Hippocratic method been extended by Aristotle beyond the field of -natural history, where he freely follows it, to that of physiology, the -succeeding generations might have established medicine far more firmly -as a science.</p> - -<p>An important factor in Aristotle’s physical and physiological -teaching is the doctrine that matter is continuous and not made -up of indivisible parts. He thus rejected the atomic views of his -predecessors Leucippus and Democritus which have been preserved for us -by the poem of Lucretius. The different kinds of matter existing merely -in their state of simple mixture formed various uniform or homogeneous -substances, <i>homoeomeria</i>, of which the <i>tissues</i> of living bodies -provided one type. We now consider tissues as having structure made up -of living cells or their products, but to Aristotle their structure was -an essential fact following on their particular elemental constitution. -The structure of muscle or flesh was perhaps comparable to that of -a crystalline substance, for, as we have seen, Aristotle made no -fundamental distinction between organic and inorganic <i>substances</i>, -which are in his view alike subject to the processes of generation and -corruption. The difference between them lies not in their structure -but in their potential relation to the various degrees of soul, the -vegetative, the animal, and the rational.</p> - -<p>‘There are’, says Aristotle, ‘three degrees of composition, and of -these the first in order is composition out of what some call the -<i>elements</i>, earth, air, water, and fire....</p> - -<p>‘The second degree of composition is that by which the <i>homogeneous</i> -parts of animals (ὁμοιομερῆ), such as bone, flesh, and the like, are -constituted out of [these] primary substances.</p> - -<p>‘The third and last stage is the composition which forms the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -<i>heterogeneous</i> parts (ἀνομοιομερῆ) such as face, hand, and the -rest.’<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> - -<p>The distinctions are not altogether clear but may perhaps be explained -along such lines as the following. The division into homogeneous and -heterogeneous corresponds in a general way to the later division -into Tissues and Organs, the former, however, including much that we -should not call tissue. The homogeneous parts were again of two kinds: -(<i>a</i>) simple tissues or stuffs without any notion of size or shape, -that is, mere substance capable of endowment with life or soul, e.g. -cartilaginous or osseous tissues; and (<i>b</i>) simple structure, that is -actual structure made of such a single tissue but with definite form -and size, matter to which form had been added and which either was -actually or had been endowed with soul, e.g. <i>a</i> cartilage or <i>a</i> bone.</p> - -<p>As a physiologist Aristotle is, in fact, in much the same position as -he is as a physicist. He never dissected the human body, he had only -the roughest idea of the course of the vessels, and his description of -the vascular system is so difficult and confused that a considerable -literature has been written on its interpretation. He regarded the -heart as the central organ of the body and the seat of sensation and he -probably believed that the arteries contained air as well as blood. He -made no adequate distinction between veins and arteries. He tells us -that two great vessels arise from the heart and that the heart is, as -it were, a part of these vessels. The two vessels are apparently the -aorta and the vena cava, and a very elementary and not very accurate -description is given of the branches of these vessels. He believed that -the heart had three chambers or cavities and that it took in air direct -from the lung.</p> - -<p>The brain was for him mainly an organ by which were secreted certain -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> -cold humours which prevented any overheating of the body by the furnace -of the heart under the action of the bellows of the lung. He formally -rejected the older views of Diogenes of Apollonia, of Alcmaeon of -Croton, and of the Hippocratic writings, that placed the seat of -sensation in the brain.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> -He failed to trace any adequate relation of sense organs and nerves -to brain. He considered that the spinal marrow served to hold the -vertebrae together.</p> - -<p>In general we may say that his physiology is on a much lower plane than -his natural history, since in dealing with physiological questions he -always seems to have in mind the body as a whole and seldom pauses for -any detailed investigation of a particular part. The physiological -views of Aristotle were far from being fully accepted even by the -generation which followed him. There was already growing up a school -of physiologists whose work culminated five centuries later in that of -Galen, where we find quite other views of the bodily functions. It is -these views which we may take as more typical of the bases of Greek -physiology (<a href="#Page_66">see p. 66</a>).</p> - -<p>In much of the Aristotelian material that we have discussed we have -seen the development of a class of interests very foreign to those -of the modern biologist, in whose work the general discussion of the -ultimate nature and origin of life seldom plays a large part. The -business of the modern biologist is mainly with vital phenomena as he -encounters them and he is not concerned with the deeper philosophical -problems. The man of science considers a part of the Universe where the -philosopher makes it his business to regard the whole. With Aristotle -this modern scientific process of taking a part of the sensible -Universe, such as a particular group of animals or the particular -action of a particular organ, and considering it in and by and for -itself without reference to other things, had not yet fully emerged. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -Philosophy and science are still inextricably linked and there is no -clear demarcation between them.</p> - -<p>This is at least his theoretical view. But besides being a philosopher -by choice he was a supreme naturalist by his natural endowments and he -cannot suppress his love for nature and his capacity for observation. -We see Aristotle the naturalist at his greatest as a direct observer -or when reasoning directly about the observations that he has made. -When he disregards his own observations and begins to erect theories -on the observations or the views of others, he becomes weaker and less -comprehensible.</p> - -<h3>§ 3. <i>After Aristotle</i></h3> - -<p>All Aristotle’s surviving biological works refer primarily to the -animal creation. His work on plants is lost or rather has survived -as the merest corrupted fragment. We are fortunate, however, in the -possession of a couple of complete works by his pupil and successor -Theophrastus (372-287), which may not only be taken to represent the -Aristotelian attitude towards the plant world, but also give us an -inkling of the general state of biological science in the generation -which succeeded the master.</p> - -<p>These treatises of Theophrastus are in many respects the most complete -and orderly of all ancient biological works that have reached our time. -They give an idea of the kind of interest that the working scientist -of that day could develop when inspired rather by the genius of a -great teacher than by the power of his own thoughts. Theophrastus -is a pedestrian where Aristotle is a creature of wings, he is in a -relation to the master of the same order that the morphologists of the -second half of the nineteenth century were to Darwin. For a couple of -generations after the appearance of the <i>Origin of Species</i> in 1859 the -industry and ability of naturalists all over the world were occupied in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> -working out in detail the structure and mode of life of living -things on the basis of the Evolutionary philosophy. Nearly all the -work on morphology and much of that on physiology since his time -might be treated as a commentary on the works of Darwin. These -volumes of Theophrastus give the same impression. They represent the -remains—alas, almost the only biological remains—of a school working -under the impulse of a great idea and spurred by the memory of a great -teacher. As such they afford a parallel to much scientific work of our -own day, produced by men without genius save that provided by a vision -and a hope and an ideal. Of such men it is impossible to write as of -Aristotle. Their lives are summed up by their actual achievement, and -since Theophrastus is an orderly writer whose works have descended to -us in good state, he is a very suitable instance of the actual standard -of achievement of ancient biology. ‘Without vision the people perish’ -and the very breath of life of science is drawn, and can only be drawn, -from that very small band of prophets who from time to time, during the -ages, have provided the great generalizations and the great ideals. In -this light let us examine the work of Theophrastus.</p> - -<p>In the absence of any adequate system of classification, almost all -botany until the seventeenth century consisted mainly of descriptions -of species. To describe accurately a leaf or a root in the language -in ordinary use would often take pages. Modern botanists have -invented an elaborate terminology which, however hideous to eye and -ear, has the crowning merit of helping to abbreviate scientific -literature. Botanical writers previous to the seventeenth century were -substantially without this special mode of expression. It is partly to -this lack that we owe the persistent attempts throughout the centuries -to represent plants pictorially in herbals, manuscript and printed, and -thus the possibility of an adequate history of plant illustration. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> - -<p>Theophrastus seems to have felt acutely the need of botanical terms, -and there are cases in which he seeks to give a special technical -meaning to words in more or less current use. Among such words are -<i>carpos</i> = fruit, <i>pericarpion</i> = seed vessel = pericarp, and <i>metra</i>, -the word used by him for the central core of any stem whether formed of -wood, pith, or other substance. It is from the usage of Theophrastus -that the exact definition of fruit and pericarp has come down to -us.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> -We may easily discern also the purpose for which he introduces into -botany the term <i>metra</i>, a word meaning primarily the <i>womb</i>, and the -vacancy in the Greek language which it was made to fill. ‘<i>Metra</i>,’ he -says, ‘is that which is in the middle of the wood, being third in order -from the bark and [thus] like to the marrow in bones. Some call it the -<i>heart</i> (καρδίαν), others the <i>inside</i> (ἐντεριώνην), yet others call -only the innermost part of the metra itself the heart, while others -again call this <i>marrow</i>.’<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> -He is thus inventing a word to cover all the different kinds of core -and importing it from another study. This is the method of modern -scientific nomenclature which hardly existed for botanists even as late -as the sixteenth century of our era. The real foundations of our modern -nomenclature were laid in the later sixteenth and in the seventeenth -century by Cesalpino and Joachim Jung.</p> - -<p>Theophrastus understood the value of developmental study, a conception -derived from his master. ‘A plant’, he says, ‘has power of germination -in all its parts, for it has life in them all, wherefore we should -regard them not for what they are but for what they are becoming.’<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> -The various modes of plant reproduction are correctly distinguished in -a way that passes beyond the only surviving earlier treatise that deals -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> -in detail with the subject, the Hippocratic work <i>On generation</i>. -‘The manner of generation of trees and plants are these: -spontaneous, from a seed, from a root, from a piece torn off, -from a branch or twig, from the trunk itself, or from pieces -of the wood cut up small.’<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> -The marvel of generation must have awakened admiration from a very -early date. We have already seen it occupying a more ancient author, -and it had also been one of the chief pre-occupations of Aristotle. It -is thus not remarkable that the process should impress Theophrastus, who -has left on record his views on the formation of the plant from the seed.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>‘Some germinate, root and leaves, from the same point, some -separately from either end of the seed. Thus wheat, barley, spelt, and -all such cereals [germinate] from either end, corresponding to the -position [of the seed] in the ear, the root from the stout lower part, -the shoot from the upper; but the two, root and stem, form a single -continuous whole. The bean and other leguminous plants are not so, but -in them root and stem are from the same point, namely, their place of -attachment to the pod, where, it is plain, they have their origin. In -some cases there is a process, as in beans, chick peas, and especially -lupines, from which the root grows downward, the leaf and stem -upward.... In certain trees the bud first germinates within the seed, -and, as it increases in size, the seeds split—all such seeds are, as it -were, in two halves; again, all those of leguminous plants have plainly -two lobes and are double—and then the root is immediately thrust out. -But in cereals, the seeds being in one piece, this does not happen, but -the root grows a little before [the shoot].</p> - -<p>‘Barley and wheat come up monophyllous, but peas, beans, and chick -peas polyphyllous. All leguminous plants have a single woody root, from -which grow slender side roots ... but wheat, barley, and the other -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> -cereals have numerous slender roots by which they are matted -together.... There is a contrast between these two kinds; the -leguminous plants have a single root and have many side-growths above -from the [single] stem ... while the cereals have many roots and send -up many shoots, but these have no side-shoots.’<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> -</div> - -<p>There can be no doubt that here is a piece of minute observation on the -behaviour of germinating seeds. The distinction between dicotyledons -and monocotyledons is accurately set forth, though the stress is -laid not so much on the cotyledonous character of the seed as on the -relation of root and shoot. In the dicotyledons root and shoot are -represented as springing from the same point, and in monocotyledons -from opposite poles in the seed.</p> - -<p>No further effective work was done on the germinating seed until -the invention of the microscope, and the appearance of the work of -Highmore (1613-85),<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> -and the much more searching investigations of Malpighi (1628-94)<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> -and Grew (1641-1712)<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> -after the middle of the seventeenth century. The observations of -Theophrastus are, however, so accurate, so lucid, and so complete that -they might well be used as legends for the plates of these writers two -thousand years after him.</p> - -<p>Much has been written as to the knowledge of the sex of plants among -the ancients. It may be stated that of the sexual elements of the -flower no ancient writer had any clear idea. Nevertheless, sex is often -attributed to plants, and the simile of the Loves of Plants enters into -works of the poets. Plants are frequently described as male and female -in ancient biological writings also, and Pliny goes so far as to say -that some students considered that all herbs and trees were sexual.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> -Yet when such passages can be tested it will be found that these -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -so-called males and females are usually different species. In a few -cases a sterile variety is described as the male and a fertile as the -female. In a small residuum of cases diœcious plants or flowers are -regarded as male and female, but with no real comprehension of the -sexual nature of the flowers. There remain the palms, in which the -knowledge of plant sex had advanced a trifle farther. ‘With dates’, -says Theophrastus, ‘the males should be brought to the females; for the -males make the fruit persist and ripen, and this some call by analogy -<i>to use the wild fig</i> (ὀλυνθάζειν).<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> -The process is thus: when the male is in flower they at once cut off -the spathe with the flower and shake the bloom, with its flower and -dust, over the fruit of the female, and, if it is thus treated, it -retains the fruit and does not shed it.’<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> -The fertilizing character of the spathe of the male date -palm was familiar in Babylon from a very early date. It is recorded by -Herodotus<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> -and is represented by a frequent symbol on the Assyrian monuments.</p> - -<p>The comparison of the fertilization of the date palm to the use of the -wild fig refers to the practice of Caprification. Theophrastus tells -us that there are certain trees, the fig among them, which are apt to -shed their fruit prematurely. To remedy this ‘the device adopted is -caprification. Gall-insects come out of the wild figs which are hanging -there, eat the tops of the cultivated figs, and so make them swell’.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> -These gall-insects ‘are engendered from the seeds’.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> -Theophrastus distinguished between the process as applied to the fig and the date, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> -observing that ‘in both [fig and date] the male aids the female—for -they call the fruit-bearing [palm] <i>female</i>—but whilst in the -one there is a union of the two sexes, in the other things are -different’.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> - -<p>Theophrastus was not very successful in distinguishing the nature -of the primary elements of plants, though he was able to separate -root, stem, leaf, stipule, and flower on morphological as well -as to a limited extent on physiological grounds. For the root he -adopts the familiar definition, the only one possible before the -rise of chemistry, that it ‘is that by which the plant draws up -nourishment’,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> -a description that applies to the account given by the pre-Aristotelian -author of the work περὶ γονῆς, <i>On generation</i>. But Theophrastus shows -by many examples that he is capable of following out morphological -homologies. Thus he knows that the ivy regularly puts forth roots from -the shoots between the leaves, by means of which it gets hold of trees -and walls,<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> -that the mistletoe will not sprout except on the bark of living trees -into which it strikes its roots, and that the very peculiar formation -of the mangrove tree is to be explained by the fact that ‘this plant -sends out roots from the shoots till it has hold on the ground and -roots again: and so there comes to be a continuous circle of roots -round the tree, not connected with the main stem, but at a distance from -it’.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> -He does not succeed, however, in distinguishing the real nature of -such structures as bulbs, rhizomes, and tubers, but regards them all -as roots. Nor is he more successful in his discussion of the nature -of stems. As to leaves, he is more definite and satisfactory, though -wholly in the dark as to their function; he is quite clear that the -pinnate leaf of the rowan tree, for instance, is a leaf and not a branch.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_08" name="FIG_08"> </a> - <p class="f150"><small>Fig. 8.</small> THEOPHRASTUS</p> - <img src="images/i_060.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="551" /> - <p class="center space-below2">From VILLA ALBANI<br />Copy - (second century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span>?) of earlier work</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -Notwithstanding his lack of insight as to the nature of sex in flowers, -he attains to an approximately correct idea of the relation of flower -and fruit. Some plants, he says, ‘have [the flower] around the fruit -itself as vine and olive; [the flowers] of the latter, when they drop, -look as though they had a hole through them, and this is taken for a -sign that it has blossomed well; for if [the flower] is burnt up or -sodden, the fruit falls with it, and so it does not become pierced. -Most flowers have the fruit case in the middle, or it may be the flower -is on the top of the pericarp as in pomegranate, apple, pear, plum, -and myrtle ... for these have their seeds below the flower.... In -some cases again the flower is on top of the seeds themselves as in -... all thistle-like plants’.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> -Thus Theophrastus has succeeded in distinguishing between the -hypogynous, perigynous, and epigynous types of flower, and has almost -come to regard its relation to the fruit as the essential floral element.</p> - -<p>Theophrastus has a perfectly clear idea of plant distribution as -dependent on soil and climate, and at times seems to be on the point -of passing from a statement of climatic distribution into one of real -geographical regions. The general question of plant distribution long -remained at, if it did not recede from, the position where he left -it. The usefulness of the manuscript and early printed herbals in the -West was for centuries marred by the retention of plant descriptions -prepared for the Greek East and Latin South, and these works were saved -from complete ineffectiveness only by an occasional appeal to nature.</p> - -<p>With the death of Theophrastus about 287 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> pure -biological science substantially disappears from the Greek world, and we get -the same type of deterioration that is later encountered in other -scientific departments. Science ceases to have the motive of the desire -to know, and becomes an applied study, subservient to the practical -arts. It is an attitude from which in the end applied science itself -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> -must suffer also. Yet the centuries that follow were not without -biological writers of very great ability. In the medical school of -Alexandria anatomy and physiology became placed on a firm basis from -about 300 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, but always in the position subordinate to -medicine that they have since occupied. Two great names of that school, -Herophilus and Erasistratus, we must consider elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> -Their works have disappeared and we have the merest fragments of them. -In the last pre-Christian and the first two post-Christian centuries, -however, there were several writers, portions of whose works have -survived and are of great biological importance. Among them we include -Crateuas, a botanical writer and illustrator, who greatly developed, -if he did not actually introduce, the method of representing plants -systematically by illustration rather than by description. This method, -important still, was even more important when there was no proper -system of botanical nomenclature. Crateuas by his paintings of plants, -copies of which have not improbably descended to our time, began a -tradition which, fixed about the fifth century, remained almost rigid -until the rediscovery of nature in the sixteenth. He was physician to -Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), but -his work was well known and appreciated at Rome, which became the place -of resort for Greek talent.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> - -<p>Celsus, who flourished about 20 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, wrote an -excellent work on medicine, but gives all too little glimpse of anatomy and -physiology. Rufus of Ephesus, however, in the next century practised -dissection of apes and other animals. He described the decussation of -the optic nerves and the capsule of the crystalline lens, and gave the -first clear description that has survived of the structure of the eye. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -He regarded the nerves as originating from the brain, and distinguished -between nerves of motion and of sensation. He described the oviduct of -the sheep and rightly held that life was possible without the spleen.</p> - -<p>The second Christian century brings us two writers who, while -scientifically inconsiderable, acted as the main carriers of such -tradition of Greek biology as reached the Middle Ages, Pliny and -Dioscorides. Pliny (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 23-79), though a Latin, -owes almost everything of value in his encyclopaedia to Greek writings. In his -<i>Natural History</i> we have a collection of current views on the nature, -origin, and uses of plants and animals such as we might expect from an -intelligent, industrious, and honest member of the landed class who -was devoid of critical or special scientific skill. Scientifically the -work is contemptible, but it demands mention in any study of the legacy -of Greece, since it was, for centuries, a main conduit of the ancient -teaching and observations on natural history. Read throughout the ages, -alike in the darkest as in the more enlightened periods, copied and -recopied, translated, commented on, extracted and abridged, a large -part of Pliny’s work has gradually passed into folk-keeping, so that -through its agency the gipsy fortune-teller of to-day is still reciting -garbled versions of the formulae of Aristotle and Hippocrates of two -and a half millennia ago.</p> - -<p>The fate of Dioscorides (flourished <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 60) has been -not dissimilar. His work <i>On Materia Medica</i> consists of a series of short -accounts of plants, arranged almost without reference to the nature of -the plants themselves, but quite invaluable for its terse and striking -descriptions which often include habits and habitats. Its history has -shown it to be one of the most influential botanical treatises ever -penned. It provided most of the little botanical knowledge that reached -the Middle Ages. It furnished the chief stimulus to botanical research -at the time of the Renaissance. It has decided the general form of -every modern pharmacopœia. It has practically determined modern plant -nomenclature both popular and scientific. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> - -<p>Translated into nearly every language from Anglo-Saxon and Provençal -to Persian and Hebrew, appearing both abstracted and in full in -innumerable beautifully illuminated manuscripts, some of which are -still among the fairest treasures of the great national libraries, -Dioscorides, the drug-monger, appealed to scholasticized minds for -centuries. The frequency with which fragments of him are encountered in -papyri shows how popular his work was in Egypt in the third and fourth -centuries. One of the earliest datable Greek codices in existence is a -glorious volume of Dioscorides written in capitals,<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> -thought worthy to form a wedding gift for a lady who was the daughter of one -Roman emperor and the betrothed of a second.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> -The illustrations of this fifth century manuscript are a very valuable monument for -the history of art and the chief adornment of what was once the Royal Library at -Vienna<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> -(<a href="#FIG_9-10">figs. 9-10</a>). Illustrated Latin translations of Dioscorides were -in use in the time of Cassiodorus (490-585). A work based on it, -similarly illustrated, but bearing the name of Apuleius, is among -the most frequent of mediaeval botanical documents and the earliest -surviving specimen is almost contemporary with Cassiodorus himself.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> -After the revival of learning Dioscorides continued to attract an -immense amount of philological and botanical ability, and scores of -editions of his works, many of them nobly illustrated, poured out of -the presses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.</p> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <p class="center space-above2">Fifth century drawings from JULIANA ANICIA MS.,<br />copied from originals - of first century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>(?)</p> - <div class="figsub"> - <a id="FIG_9-10" name="FIG_9-10"> </a> - <img src="images/i_064a.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="388" /> - <p class="center">Fig. 9.<br /><b>ΣΟΝΚΟΣ ΤΡΥΦΕΡΟΣ</b> = <i>Crepis paludosa</i>, <i>Mœn.</i></p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <a><img src="images/i_064b.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="378" /></a> - <p class="center space-above1">Fig. 10.<br /><b>ΓΕΡΑΝΙΟΝ</b> = <i>Erodium malachoides</i>, <i>L.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -But the greatest biologist of the late Greek period, and indeed one of -the greatest biologists of all time, was Claudius Galen of Pergamon -(<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 131-201). Galen devoted himself to medicine from -an early age, and in his twenty-first year we hear of him studying anatomy -at Smyrna under Pelops. With the object of extending his knowledge of -drugs he early made long journeys to Asia Minor. Later he proceeded to -Alexandria, where he improved his anatomical equipment, and here, he -tells us, he examined a human skeleton. It is indeed probable that his -direct practical acquaintance with human anatomy was limited to the -skeleton and that dissection of the human body was no longer carried -on at Alexandria in his time. Thus his physiology and anatomy had to -be derived mainly from animal sources. He is the most voluminous of -all ancient scientific writers and one of the most voluminous writers -of antiquity in any department. We are not here concerned with the -medical material which mainly fills these huge volumes, but merely with -the physiological views which not only prevailed in medicine until -Harvey and after, but also governed for fifteen hundred years alike -the scientific and the popular ideas on the nature and workings of the -animal body, and have for centuries been embedded in our speech. A -knowledge of these physiological views of Galen is necessary for any -understanding of the history of biology and illuminates many literary -allusions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.</p> - -<p>Between the foundation of the Alexandrian school and the time of Galen, -medicine was divided among a great number of sects. Galen was an -eclectic and took portions of his teaching from many of these schools, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -but he was also a naturalist of great ability and industry, and knew -well the value of the experimental way. Yet he was a somewhat windy -philosopher and, priding himself on his philosophic powers, did not -hesitate to draw conclusions from evidence which was by no means always -adequate. The physiological system that he thus succeeded in building -up we may now briefly consider (<a href="#FIG_11">fig. 11</a>).</p> - -<p>The basic principle of life, in the Galenic physiology, is a <i>spirit</i>, -<i>anima</i> or <i>pneuma</i>, drawn from the general world-soul in the act of -respiration. It enters the body through the <i>rough artery</i> (τραχεῖα -ἀρτηρία, <i>arteria aspera</i> of mediaeval notation), the organ known to -our nomenclature as the trachea. From this trachea the pneuma passes to -the lung and then, through the <i>vein-like artery</i> (ἀρτηρία φλεβώδης, -<i>arteria venalis</i> of mediaeval writers, the pulmonary vein of our -nomenclature), to the left ventricle. Here it will be best to leave it -for a moment and trace the vascular system along a different route.</p> - -<p>Ingested food, passing down the alimentary tract, was absorbed as chyle -from the intestine, collected by the portal vessel, and conveyed by it -to the liver. That organ, the site of the innate heat in Galen’s view, -had the power of elaborating the chyle into venous blood and of imbuing -it with a spirit or pneuma which is innate in all living substance, -so long as it remains alive, the <i>natural spirits</i> (πνεῦμα φυσικόν, -<i>spiritus naturalis</i> of the mediaevals). Charged with this, and also -with the nutritive material derived from the food, the venous blood is -distributed by the liver through the veins which arise from it in the -same way as the arteries from the heart. These veins carry nourishment -and <i>natural spirits</i> to all parts of the body. <i>Iecur fons venarum</i>, -the liver as the source of the veins, remained through the centuries -the watchword of the Galenic physiology. The blood was held to ebb and -flow continuously in the veins during life. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_11" name="FIG_11"> </a> - <img src="images/i_066.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="725" /> - <p class="center space-below2"><span class="smcap">Fig. 11.</span> Illustrating - Galen’s physiological teaching.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> -Now from the liver arose one great vessel, the hepatic vein, from -division of which the others were held to come off as branches. Of -these branches, one, our <i>common vena cava</i>, entered the right side -of the heart. For the blood that it conveyed to the heart there were -two fates possible. The greater part remained awhile in the ventricle, -parting with its impurities and vapours, exhalations of the organs, -which were carried off by the <i>artery-like vein</i> (φλὲπς ἀρτηριώδης, -the mediaeval <i>vena pulmonalis</i>, our pulmonary artery) to the lung -and then exhaled to the outer air. These impurities and vapours gave -its poisonous and suffocating character to the breath. Having parted -thus with its impurities, the venous blood ebbed back again from the -right ventricle into the venous system. But for a small fraction of -the venous blood that entered the right ventricle another fate was -reserved. This small fraction of venous blood, charged still with -the <i>natural spirits</i> derived from the liver, passed through minute -channels in the septum between the ventricles and entered the left -chamber. Arrived there, it encountered the external pneuma and became -thereby elaborated into a higher form of spirit, the <i>vital spirits</i> -(πνεῦμα ζωτικόν, <i>spiritus vitalis</i>), which is distributed together -with blood by the arterial system to various parts of the body. In the -arterial system it also ebbed and flowed, and might be seen and felt to -pulsate there.</p> - -<p>But among the great arterial vessels that sent forth arterial blood -thus charged with vital spirits were certain vessels which ascended -to the brain. Before reaching that organ they divided up into minute -channels, the <i>rete mirabile</i> (πλέγμα μέγιστον θαῦμα), and passing -into the brain became converted by the action of that organ into a yet -higher type of spirits, the <i>animal spirits</i> (πνεῦμα ψυχικόν, <i>spiritus -animalis</i>), an ethereal substance distributed to the various parts of -the body by the structures known to-day as nerves, but believed then -to be hollow channels. The three fundamental faculties (δυνάμεις), the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -<i>natural</i>, the <i>vital</i>, and the <i>animal</i>, which brought into action -the corresponding functions of the body, thus originated as an expression -of the primal force or pneuma.</p> - -<p>This physiology, we may emphasize, is not derived from an investigation -of human anatomy. In the human brain there is no <i>rete mirabile</i>, -though such an organ is found in the calf. In the human liver there -is no <i>hepatic vein</i>, though such an organ is found in the dog. Dogs, -calves, pigs, bears, and, above all, Barbary apes were freely dissected -by Galen and were the creatures from which he derived his physiological -ideas. Many of Galen’s anatomical and physiological errors are due to -his attributing to one creature the structures found in another, a fact -that only very gradually dawned on the Renaissance anatomists.</p> - -<p>The whole knowledge possessed by the world in the department of -physiology from the third to the seventeenth century, nearly all the -biological conceptions till the thirteenth, and most of the anatomy and -much of the botany until the sixteenth century, all the ideas of the -physical structure of living things throughout the Middle Ages, were -contained in a small number of these works of Galen. The biological -works of Aristotle and Theophrastus lingered precariously in a few -rare manuscripts in the monasteries of the East; the total output of -hundreds of years of Alexandrian and Pergamenian activities was utterly -destroyed; the Ionian biological works, of which a sample has by a -miracle survived, were forgotten; but these vast, windy, ill-arranged -treatises of Galen lingered on. Translated into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, -and Hebrew, they saturated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages. -Commented on by later Greek writers, who were themselves in turn -translated into the same list of languages, they were yet again served -up under the names of such Greek writers as Oribasius, Paul of Aegina, -or Alexander of Tralles.</p> - -<p>What is the secret of the vitality of these Galenic biological -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -conceptions? The answer can be given in four words. <i>Galen</i> <i>is a -teleologist</i>; and a teleologist of a kind whose views happened to fit -in with the prevailing theological attitude of the Middle Ages, whether -Christian, Moslem, or Jewish. According to him everything which exists -and displays activity in the human body originates in and is formed -by an intelligent being and on an intelligent plan, so that the organ -in structure and function is the result of that plan. ‘It was the -Creator’s infinite wisdom which selected the best means to attain his -beneficent ends, and it is a proof of His omnipotence that he created -every good thing according to His design, and thereby fulfilled His -will.’<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> - -<p>After Galen there is a thousand years of darkness, and biology ceases -to have a history. The mind of the Dark Ages turned towards theology, -and such remains of Neoplatonic philosophy as were absorbed into the -religious system were little likely to be of aid to the scientific -attitude. One department of positive knowledge must of course persist. -Men still suffered from the infirmities of the flesh and still sought -relief from them. But the books from which that advice was sought had -nothing to do with general principles nor with knowledge as such. -They were the most wretched of the treatises that still masqueraded -under the names of Hippocrates and Galen, mostly mere formularies, -antidotaries, or perhaps at best symptom lists. And, when the -depression of the western intellect had passed its worst, there was -still no biological material on which it could be nourished.</p> - -<p>The prevailing interest of the barbarian world, at last beginning to -settle into its heritage of antiquity, was with Logic. Of Aristotle -there survived in Latin dress only the <i>Categories</i> and the <i>De -interpretatione</i>, the merciful legacy of Boethius, the last of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -philosophers. Had a translation of Aristotle’s <i>Historia animalium</i> -or <i>De generatione animalium</i> survived, had a Latin version of the -Hippocratic work <i>On generation</i> or of the treatises of Theophrastus -<i>On plants</i> reached the earlier Middle Ages, the whole mental history -of Europe might have been different and the rediscovery of nature might -have been antedated by centuries. But this was a change of heart for -which the world had long to wait; something much less was the earliest -biological gift of Greece. The gift, when it came, came in two forms, -one of which has not been adequately recognized, but both are equally -her legacy. These two forms are, firstly, the well-known work of the -early translators and, secondly, the tardily recognized work of certain -schools of minor art.</p> - -<p>The earliest biological treatises that became accessible in the west -were rendered not from Greek but from Arabic. The first of them was -perhaps the treatise περὶ μυῶν κινήσεως, <i>On movement of muscles</i> of -Galen, a work which contains more than its title suggests and indeed -sets forth much of the Galenic physiological system. It was rendered -into Latin from the Arabic of Joannitius (Hunain ibn Ishaq, 809-73), -probably about the year 1200, by one Mark of Toledo. It attracted -little attention, but very soon after biological works of Aristotle -began to become accessible. The first was probably the fragment <i>On -plants</i>. The Greek original of this is lost, and besides the Latin, -only an Arabic version of a former Arabic translation of a Syriac -rendering of a Greek commentary is now known! Such a work appeared from -the hand of a translator known as Alfred the Englishman about 1220 or a -little later. Neither it nor another work from the same translator, <i>On -the motion of the heart</i>, which sought to establish the primacy of that -organ on Aristotelian grounds, can be said to contain any of the spirit -of the master.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -A little better than these is the work of the wizard Michael the Scot -(1175?-1234?). Roger Bacon tells us that Michael in 1230 ‘appeared -[at Oxford], bringing with him the works of Aristotle in natural -history and mathematics, with wise expositors, so that the philosophy -of Aristotle was magnified among the Latins’. Scott produced his work -<i>De animalibus</i> about this date and he included in it the three great -biological works of Aristotle, all rendered from an inferior Arabic -version.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> -Albertus Magnus (1206-80) had not as yet a translation direct from -the Greek to go upon for his great commentary on the <i>History of -animals</i>, but he depended on Scott. The biological works of -Aristotle were rendered into Latin direct from the Greek in the -year 1260 probably by William of Moerbeke.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> -Such translations, appearing in the full scholastic age when everything -was against direct observation, cannot be said to have fallen on a -fertile ground. They presented an ordered account of nature and a good -method of investigation, but these were gifts to a society that knew -little of their real value.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> - -<p>Yet the advent of these texts was coincident with a returning desire to -observe nature. Albert, with all his scholasticism, was no contemptible -naturalist. He may be said to have begun first-hand plant study in -modern times so far as literary records are concerned. His book -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> -<i>De vegetabilibus</i> contains excellent observations, and he is worthy -of inclusion among the fathers of botany. In his vast treatise <i>De -animalibus</i>, hampered as he is by his learning and verbosity, he shows -himself a true observer and one who has absorbed something of the -spirit of the great naturalist to whose works he had devoted a lifetime -of study and on which he professes to be commenting. We see clearly -the leaven of the Aristotelian spirit working, though Albert is still -a schoolman. We may select for quotation a passage on the generation -of fish, a subject on which some of Aristotle’s most remarkable -descriptions remained unconfirmed till modern times. These descriptions -impressed Albert in the same way as they do the modern naturalist. To -those who know nothing of the stimulating power of the Aristotelian -biological works, Albert’s description of the embryos of fish and his -accurate distinction of their mode of development from that of birds, -by the absence of an allantoic membrane in the one and its presence in -the other, must surely be startling. Albert depends on Aristotle—a -third-hand version of Aristotle—but does not slavishly follow him.</p> - -<p>‘Between the mode of development (<i>anathomiam generationis</i>) of birds’ -and fishes’ eggs there is this difference: during the development of -the fish the second of the two veins which extend from the heart [as -described by Aristotle in birds] does not exist. For we do not find -the vein which extends to the outer covering in the eggs of birds -which some wrongly call the navel because it carries the blood to the -exterior parts; but we do find the vein that corresponds to the yolk -vein of birds, for this vein imbibes the nourishment by which the limbs -increase.... In fishes as in birds, channels extend from the heart -first to the head and the eyes, and first in them appear the great -upper parts. As the growth of the young fish increases the albumen -decreases, being incorporated into the members of the young fish, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -it disappears entirely when development and formation are complete. The -beating of the heart ... is conveyed to the lower part of the belly, -carrying pulse and life to the inferior members.</p> - -<p>‘While the young [fish] are small and not yet fully developed they have -veins of great length which take the place of the navel-string, but as -they grow and develop, these shorten and contract into the body towards -the heart, as we have said about birds. The young fish and the eggs are -enclosed and in a covering, as are the eggs and young of birds. This -covering resembles the dura mater [of the brain], and beneath it is -another [corresponding therefore to the pia mater of the brain] which -contains the young animal and nothing else.’<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> - -<p>In the next century Conrad von Megenberg (1309-98) produced his <i>Book -of Nature</i>, a complete work on natural history, the first of the kind -in the vernacular, founded on Latin versions, now rendered direct -from the Greek, of the Aristotelian and Galenic biological works. It -is well ordered and opens with a systematic account of the structure -and physiology of man as a type of the animal creation, which is then -systematically described and followed by an account of plants. Conrad, -though guided by Aristotle, uses his own eyes and ears, and with him -and Albert the era of direct observation has begun.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> - -<p>But there was another department in which the legacy of Greece found -an even earlier appreciation. For centuries the illustrations to -herbals and bestiaries had been copied from hand to hand, continuing a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> -tradition that had its rise with Greek artists of the first century -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span> But their work, copied at each stage without -reference to the object, moved constantly farther from resemblance to the -original. At last the illustrations became little but formal patterns, -a state in which they remained in some late copies prepared as recently -as the sixteenth century. But at a certain period a change set in, and -the artist, no longer content to rely on tradition, appeals at last to -nature. This new stirring in art corresponds with the new stirring in -letters, the Arabian revival—itself a legacy of Greece, though sadly -deteriorated in transit—that gave rise to scholasticism. In much of -the beautiful carved and sculptured work of the French cathedrals the -new movement appears in the earlier part of the thirteenth century. -At such a place as Chartres we see the attempt to render plants and -animals faithfully in stone as early as 1240 or before. In the easier -medium of parchment the same tendency appears even earlier. When once -it begins the process progresses slowly until the great recovery of the -Greek texts in the fifteenth century, when it is again accelerated.</p> - -<p>During the sixteenth century the energy of botanists and zoologists was -largely absorbed in producing most carefully annotated and illustrated -editions of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and accounts of animals, -habits, and structure that were intended to illustrate the writings of -Aristotle, while the anatomists explored the bodies of man and beast -to confirm or refute Galen. The great monographs on birds, fishes, and -plants of this period, ostensibly little but commentaries on Pliny, -Aristotle, and Dioscorides, represent really the first important -efforts of modern times at a natural history. They pass naturally into -the encyclopaedias of the later sixteenth century, and these into the -physiological works of the seventeenth. Aristotle was never a dead hand -in Biology as he was in Physics, and this for the reason that he was a -great biologist but was not a great physicist. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> - -<p>With the advance of the sixteenth century the works of Aristotle, and -to a less extent those of Dioscorides and Galen, became the great -stimulus to the foundation of a new biological science. Matthioli -(1520-77), in his commentary on Dioscorides (first edition 1544), which -was one of the first works of its type to appear in the vernacular, -made a number of first-hand observations on the habits and structure -of plants that is startling even to a modern botanist. About the same -time Galenic physiology, expressed also in numerous works in the -vulgar tongue and rousing the curiosity of the physicians, became the -clear parent of modern physiology and comparative anatomy. But, above -all, the Aristotelian biological works were fertilizers of the mind. -It is very interesting to watch a fine observer such as Fabricius ab -Acquapendente (1537-1619) laying the foundations of modern embryology -in a splendid series of first-hand observations, treating his own great -researches almost as a commentary on Aristotle. What an impressive -contrast to the arid physics of the time based also on Aristotle! ‘My -purpose’, says Fabricius, ‘is to treat of the formation of the foetus -in every animal, setting out from that which proceeds from the egg: for -this ought to take precedence of all other discussion of the subject, -both because it is not difficult to make out Aristotle’s view of the -matter, and because his treatise on the Formation of the Foetus from -the egg is by far the fullest, and the subject is by much the most -extensive and difficult.’<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> - -<p>The industrious and careful Fabricius, with a wonderful talent for -observation lit not by his own lamp but by that of Aristotle, bears -a relation to the master much like that held by Aristotle’s pupil -in the flesh, Theophrastus. The works of the two men, Fabricius and -Theophrastus, bear indeed a resemblance to each other. Both rely on the -same group of general ideas, both progress in much the same ordered -calm from observation to observation, both have an inspiration which is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -efficient and stimulating but below the greatest, both are enthusiastic -and effective as investigators of fact, but timid and ineffective in -drawing conclusions.</p> - -<p>But Fabricius was more happy in his pupils than Theophrastus, for -we may watch the same Aristotelian ideas fermenting in the mind of -Fabricius’s successor, the greatest biologist since Aristotle himself, -William Harvey (1578-1657).<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> -This writer’s work <i>On generation</i> is a careful commentary on -Aristotle’s work on the same topic, but it is a commentary not in -the old sense but in the spirit of Aristotle himself. Each statement -is weighed and tested in the light of experience, and the younger -naturalist, with all his reverence for Aristotle, does not hesitate -to criticize his conclusions. He exhibits an independence of thought, -an ingenuity in experiment, and a power of deduction that places his -treatise as the middle term of the three great works on embryology of -which the other members are those of Aristotle and Karl Ernst von Baer -(1796-1870).<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> - -<p>With the second half of the seventeenth century and during a large part -of the eighteenth the biological works of Aristotle attracted less -attention. The battle against the Aristotelian physics had been fought -and won, but with them the biological works of Aristotle unjustly -passed into the shadow that overhung all the idols of the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>The rediscovery of the Aristotelian biology is a modern thing. The -collection of the vast wealth of living forms absorbed the energies -of the generations of naturalists from Ray (1627-1705) and Willoughby -(1635-72) to Réaumur (1683-1757) and Linnaeus (1707-1778) and beyond to -the nineteenth century. The magnitude and fascination of the work seems -almost to have excluded general ideas. With the end of this period and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -the advent of a more philosophical type of naturalist, such as Cuvier -(1769-1832) and members of the Saint-Hilaire family, Aristotle came -again to his own. Since the dawn of the nineteenth century, and since -naturalists have been in a position to verify the work of Aristotle, -his reputation as a naturalist has continuously risen. Johannes Müller -(1801-58), Richard Owen (1804-92), George Henry Lewes (1817-78), -William Ogle (1827-1912) are a few of the long line of those who -have derived direct inspiration from his biological work. With -improved modern methods of investigation the problems of generation -have absorbed a large amount of biological attention, and interest -has become specially concentrated on Aristotle’s work on that topic -which is perhaps, at the moment, more widely read than any biological -treatise, ancient or modern, except the works of Darwin. That great -naturalist wrote to Ogle in 1882: ‘From quotations I had seen I had a -high notion of Aristotle’s merits, but I had not the most remote notion -what a wonderful man he was. Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, -though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2>GREEK MEDICINE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="blockquot space-below1">Ἡρόφιλος δὲ ᾝἐν τῷ Διαιτητικῷ καὶ σοφίαν φησὶν -ἀνεπίδεικτον καὶ τέχνην ἄδηλον καὶ ἰσχὺν ἀναγώνιστον καὶ πλοῦτον -ἀχρεῖον καὶ λόγον ἀδύνατον, ὑγιείας ἀπούσης.</p> - -<p>Herophilus, a Greek philosopher and physician (<i>c.</i> 300 <span class="smcap">b. -c.</span>), has truly written ‘that Science and Art have equally nothing -to show, that Strength is incapable of effort, Wealth useless, and -Eloquence powerless if Health be wanting’.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> -All peoples therefore have had their methods of treating those -departures from health that we call disease, and among peoples of -higher culture such methods have been reduced in most cases to -something resembling a system. In antiquity, as now, a variety of -such systems were in vogue, and those nations who practised the art -of writing from an early date have left considerable records of their -medical methods and doctrines. We may thus form a fairly good idea of -the medical principles of the Mesopotamian, the Egyptian, the Iranian, -the Indian, and the Chinese civilizations. Much in these systems, as -in the medical procedure of more primitive tribes, was based upon some -theory of disease which fitted in with a larger theory of the nature -of evil. Of these theories the commonest was and is the demonic, the -view that regards deviation from the normal state of health as due -either to the attacks of supernatural beings or to their actual entry -into the body of the sufferer. A medical system based on such a view is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> -susceptible of great elaboration in a higher civilization, but not being founded on -observation is hardly capable of indefinite development, for a -point must ultimately be reached at which the mind recoils from -complex conclusions far remote from observed phenomena. The medicine -of the ancient and settled civilization of such a people as the -Assyro-Babylonians, for instance, of which substantial traces have -been recovered, is hardly, if at all, more effective, though far more -systematized, than that of many a wild and unlettered tribe that may -be observed to-day. Of such medicine as this we may give an account, -but we can hardly write a <i>history</i>. We cannot establish those elements -of continuity and of development from which alone history can be constructed.</p> - -<p>It is the distinction of the Greeks alone among the nations of -antiquity that they practised a system of medicine based not on theory -but on observation accumulated systematically as time went on. The -claim can be made for the Greeks that some at least among them were -deflected by no theory, were deceived by no theurgy, were hampered by -no tradition in their search for the facts of disease and in their -attempts at interpreting its phenomena. Only the Greeks among the -ancients could look on their healers as <i>physicians</i> (= naturalists, -φύσις = nature), and that word itself stands as a lasting reminder of -their achievement.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> - -<p>At a certain stage in the history of the Western world—the exact point -in time may be disputed but the event is admitted by all—men turned -to explore the treasures of the ancient wisdom and the whole mass of -Greek medical learning was gradually laid before the student. That mass -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -contained much dross, material that survived from early as from late -Greek times which was hardly, if at all, superior to the debased -compositions that circulated in the name of medicine in the middle -centuries. But the recovered Greek medical writings also contained some -material of the purest and most scientific type, and that material and -the spirit in which it was written, form the debt of modern medicine to -antiquity.</p> - -<p>It is a debt the value of which cannot be exaggerated. The physicians -of the revival of learning, and for long after, doubtless pinned their -faith too much to the written word of their Greek forbears and sought -to imprison the free spirit of Hippocrates and Galen in the rigid -wall of their own rediscovered texts. The great medical pioneers of -a somewhat later age, enraged by this attempt, the real nature of -which was largely hidden from them, not infrequently revolted and -rightly revolted against the bondage to the Greeks in which they had -been brought up. Yet it is sure that these modern discoverers were -the true inheritors of the Greeks. Without Herophilus we should have -had no Harvey and the rise of physiology might have been delayed for -centuries; had Galen’s works not survived, Vesalius would never have -reconstructed Anatomy, and Surgery too might have stayed behind with -her laggard sister, Medicine; the Hippocratic collection was the -necessary and acknowledged basis for the work of the greatest of modern -clinical observers, Thomas Sydenham, and the teaching of Hippocrates -and of his school is the substantial basis of instruction in the wards -of a modern hospital. In the pages which follow we propose therefore -to review the general character of medical knowledge in the best Greek -period and to consider briefly how much of that great heritage remained -accessible to the earlier modern physicians. The reader will thus be -able to form some estimate of the degree to which the legacy has been -passed on to our own times.</p> - -<p>It is evident that among such a group of peoples as the Greeks, varying -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -in state of civilization, in mental power, in geographical and economic -position and in general outlook, the practice of medicine can have -been by no means uniform. Without any method of centralizing medical -education and standardizing teaching there was a great variety of -doctrines and of practice in vogue among them, and much of this was on -a low level of folk custom. Such lower grade material of Greek origin -has come down to us in abundance, though much of it, curiously enough, -from a later time. But the overwhelming mass of earlier Greek medical -literature sets forth for us a pure scientific effort to observe and -to classify disease, to make generalizations from carefully collected -data, to explain the origin of disease on rational grounds, and to -apply remedies, when possible, on a reasoned basis. We may thus rest -fairly well assured that, despite serious and irreparable losses, we -are still in possession of some of the very finest products of the -Greek medical intellect.</p> - -<p>There is ample evidence that the Greeks inherited, in common with many -other peoples of Mediterranean and Asiatic origin, a whole system of -magical or at least non-rational pharmacy and medicine from a remoter -ancestry. Striking parallels can be drawn between these folk elements -among the Greeks and the medical systems of the early Romans, as well -as with the medicine of the Indian Vedas, of the ancient Egyptians, and -of the earliest European barbarian writings. It is thus reasonable to -suppose that these elements, when they appear in later Greek writings, -represent more primitive folk elements working up, under the influence -of social disintegration and consequent mental deterioration, through -the upper strata of the literate Greek world. But with these elements, -intensely interesting to the anthropologist, the psychologist, the -ethnologist, and to the historian of religion, we are not here greatly -concerned. Important as they are, they constitute no part of the -special claim of the Greek people to distinction, but rather aid us in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -uniting the Greek mentality with that of other kindred peoples. Here we -shall rather discuss the course of Greek scientific medicine proper, -the type of medical doctrine and practice, capable of development -in the proper sense of the word, that forms the basis of our modern system. -We are concerned, in fact, with the earliest evolutionary medicine.</p> - -<p>We need hardly discuss the first origins of Greek Medicine. The -material is scanty and the conclusions somewhat doubtful and -perhaps premature, for the discovery of a considerable fragment of -the historical work of Menon, a pupil of Aristotle, containing a -description of the views of some of the precursors of the Hippocratic -school, renews a hope that more extended investigation may yield -further information as to the sources and nature of the earliest Greek -medical writings.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> -The study of Mesopotamian star-lore has linked it up with early -Greek astronomical science. The efforts of cuneiform scholars have -not, however, been equally successful for medicine, and on the whole -the general tendency of modern research is to give less weight to -Mesopotamian and more to Egyptian sources than had previously been -admitted; thus, as an instance, some prescriptions in the Ebers -papyrus of the eighteenth dynasty (about the sixteenth century <span -class="smcap">b. c.</span>) discovered at Thebes in 1872 resemble -certain formulae in the Corpus Hippocraticum. A number of drugs, too, -habitually used by the Greeks, such as <i>Andropogon</i>, <i>Cardamoms</i>, and -<i>Sesame orientalis</i>, are of Indian origin. There are also the Minoan -cultures to be considered, and our knowledge is not yet sufficient to -speak of the heritage that Greek medicine may or may not have derived -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> -from that source, though it seems not improbable that Greek hygiene may -here owe a debt.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> -Omitting, therefore, this early epoch, we pass direct to the later -period, between the sixth and fourth centuries, from which documents -have actually come down to us.</p> - -<p>The earliest medical school of which we have definite information is -that of Cnidus, a Lacedaemonian colony in Asiatic Doris. Its origin -may perhaps reach back to the seventh century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> -We have actual records that the teachers of Cnidus were accustomed to collect -systematically the phenomena of disease, of which they had produced -a very complex classification, and we probably possess also several -of their actual works. The physicians of Cos, their only contemporary -critics whose writings have survived, considered that the Cnidian -physicians paid too much attention to the actual sensations of the -patient and to the physical signs of the disease. The most important -of the Cnidian doctrines were drawn up in a series of <i>Sentences</i> or -Aphorisms, and these, it appears, inculcated a treatment along Egyptian -lines of the symptom or at most the disease, rather than the patient, -a statement borne out by the contents of the gynaecological works -of probable Cnidian origin included in the so-called ‘Hippocratic -Collection’. A few names of Cnidian physicians have, moreover, come -down to us with titles of their works, and a later statement that they -practised anatomy. There can be little doubt too that the Cnidian -school drew also on Persian and Indian Medicine.</p> - -<p>The origin of the school of the neighbouring island of Cos was a -little later than that of Cnidus and probably dates from the sixth -century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> Of the Coan school, or at least of the -general tendencies that it represented, we have a magnificent and copious -literary monument in the Corpus Hippocraticum, a collection which was -probably put together in the early part of the third century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> -by a commission of Alexandrian scholars at the order of the book-loving -Ptolemy Soter (reigned 323-285 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>). The elements -of which this collection is composed are of varying dates from the sixth to the -fourth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, and of varying value and origin, -but they mainly represent the point of view of physicians of the eastern -part of the Greek world in the fifth and fourth centuries.</p> - -<p>The most obvious feature, the outstanding element that at once -strikes the modern observer in these ‘Coan’ writings, is the enormous -emphasis laid on the actual course of disease. ‘It appears to me a -most excellent thing’, so opens one of the greatest of the Hippocratic -works, ‘for a physician to cultivate <i>pronoia</i>.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> -Foreknowing and foretelling in the presence of the sick the past, -present, and future (of their symptoms) and explaining all that the -patients are neglecting, he would be believed to understand their -condition, so that men would have confidence to entrust themselves to -his care.... Thus he would win just respect and be a good physician. By -an earlier forecast in each case he would be more able to tend those -aright who have a chance of surviving, and by foreseeing and stating -who will die, and who will survive, he will escape blame....’<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> - -<p>Just as the Cnidians by dividing up diseases according to symptoms -over-emphasized diagnosis and over-elaborated treatment, so the Coans -laid very great force on prognosis and adopted therefore a largely -expectant attitude towards diseases. Both Cnidian and Coan physicians -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> -were held together by a common bond which was, historically if not -actually, related to temple worship. Physicians leagued together in the -name of a god, as were the Asclepiadae, might escape, and did escape, -the baser theurgic elements of temple medicine. Of these they were as -devoid as a modern Catholic physician might be expected to be free from -the absurdities of Lourdes. But the extreme cult of prognosis among -the Coans may not improbably be traced back to the medical lore of the -temple soothsayers whose divine omens were replaced by indications of -a physical nature in the patient himself.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> We are tempted too to -link it with that process of astronomical and astrological prognosis -practised in the Mesopotamian civilizations from which Ionia imitated -and derived so much. Religion had thus the same relation to medicine -that it would have with a modern ‘religious’ medical man as suggesting -the motive and determining the general direction of his practice though -without influence on the details and method.</p> - -<p>During the development of the Coan medical school along these lines in -the sixth and fifth centuries, there was going on a most remarkable -movement at the very other extreme of the Greek world. Into the course -and general importance of Sicilian philosophy it is not our place to -enter, but that extraordinary movement was not without its repercussion -on medical theory and practice. Very important in this direction was -Empedocles of Agrigentum (<i>c.</i> 500-<i>c.</i> 430 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>). -His view that the blood is the seat of the ‘innate heat’, ἔμφυτον θερμόν, he -took from folk belief—‘the blood is the life’—and this innate heat -he closely identified with soul. More profitable was his doctrine -that breathing takes place not only through what are now known as the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -respiratory passages but also through the pores of the skin. His -teaching led to a belief in the heart as the centre of the vascular -system and the chief organ of the ‘pneuma’ which was distributed by -the blood vessels. This pneuma was equivalent to both soul and life, -but it was something more. It was identified with air and breath, and -the pneuma could be seen to rise as shimmering steam from the shed -blood of the sacrificial victim—for was not the blood its natural -home? There was a pneuma, too, that interpenetrated the universe around -us and gave it those qualities of life that it was felt to possess. -Anaximenes (<i>c.</i> 610-<i>c.</i> 545 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), an -Ionian predecessor of Empedocles, may be said to have defined for us these -functions of the pneuma; οῖον ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ ἡμετέρα ἀὴρ οῧσα συγκρατεί ἡμᾶς, ὅλον -τὸν κόσμον πνεῦμα καὶ ἀὴρ περιέχει ‘As our soul, being air, sustains -us, so pneuma and air pervade the whole universe’;<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> -but it is the speculation of Empedocles himself that came to be regarded -as the basis of the Pneumatic School in Medicine which had later very -important developments.</p> - -<p>Another early member of the Western school who made important -contributions to medical doctrine—in which relation alone we need -consider him—was Pythagoras of Samos (<i>c.</i> 580-<i>c.</i> 490 <span class="smcap">b. -c.</span>). For him number, as the purest conception, formed the basis of -philosophy. Unity was the symbol of perfection and corresponded to God -Himself. The material universe was represented by 2, and was divided by -the number 12, whence we have 3 worlds and 4 spheres. These in turn, -according at least to the later Pythagoreans, give rise to the four -elements, earth, air, fire, and water—a primary doctrine of medicine -and of science derived perhaps from ancient Egypt and surviving for -more than two millennia. The Pythagoreans taught, too, of the existence -of an animal soul, an emanation of the soul of the universe. In all -this we may distinguish the germ of that doctrine of the relation of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> -man and universe, microcosm and macrocosm, which, suppressed as -irrelevant in the Hippocratic works, reappears in the Platonic and -especially in the Neoplatonic writings, and forms a very important -dogma in later medicine.</p> - -<p>A pupil of Pythagoras and an older contemporary of Empedocles was -Alcmaeon of Croton (<i>c.</i> 500 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), who began -to construct a positive basis for medical science by the practice of dissection -of animals, and discovered the optic nerves and the Eustachian tubes. He -even extended his researches to Embryology, describing the head of -the foetus as the first part to be developed—a justifiable deduction -from appearances. Alcmaeon introduced also the doctrine that health -depends on harmony, disease on discord of the elements within the -body. Curiosity as to the distribution of the vessels was excited by -Empedocles and Alcmaeon and led to further dissection, and Alcmaeon’s -pupils Acron (<i>c.</i> 480 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>) and Pausanias -(<i>c.</i> 480 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), and the later Philistion of -Lokri,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> -the contemporary of Plato, all made anatomical investigations.</p> - -<p>The views of Empedocles, and especially his doctrine that regarded -the heart as the main site of the pneuma, though rejected by the Coan -school as a whole, were not without influence on Ionia. Diogenes -of Apollonia, the philosopher of pneumatism, a late fifth century -writer who must have been contemporary with Hippocrates the Great, -himself made an investigation of the blood vessels; and the influence -of the same school may be traced in a little work περὶ καρδίης, <i>On -the heart</i>, which is the best anatomical treatise of the Hippocratic -Collection. This work describes the aorta and the pulmonary artery as -well as the three valves at the root of each of the great vessels, -and it speaks of experiments to test their validity. It treats of the -pericardium and of the pericardial fluid and perhaps of the musculi -papillares, and contrasts the thickness of the walls of right and left -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> -ventricles. The author considers that the left ventricle is empty of -blood—as indeed it is after death—and is the source of the innate -heat and of the absolute intelligence. These views fit in with the -doctrines of Empedocles, so that we may perhaps even venture to -regard this work as a surviving document of the Sicilian school. It -is interesting to observe that we have here the first hint of human -dissection, for the author tells us that the hearts of animals may be -compared to that of man. The distinction of having been the first to -write on human anatomy, as such, belongs however, probably to a later -writer, Diocles, son of Archidamus of Carystus, who lived in the fourth -century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span><a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> - -<p>We may now turn to the Hippocratic Corpus as a whole. This collection -consists of about 60 or 70 separate works, written at various periods -and in various states of preservation. At best only a very small -proportion of them can be attributed to Hippocrates, but the discussion -of the general question of the ‘genuineness’ of the works is now -admitted to be futile, for it is certain that we have no criteria -whatever to determine whether or no a particular work be from the pen -of the Father of Medicine, and the most we can ever say of such a -treatise is that it appears to be of his school and in his spirit. Yet -among the great gifts of this collection to our time and to all time -are two which stand out above all others, the picture of a man, and the -picture of a method.</p> - -<p>The man is Hippocrates himself. Of the actual details of his life we -know next to nothing. His period of greatest activity falls about 400 -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span> He seems to have led a wandering life. Born -of a long line of physicians in the island of Cos, he exerted his activities -in Thrace, Abdera, Delos, the Propontis (Cyzicus), Thasos, Thessaly -(notably at Larissa and Meliboea), Athens, and elsewhere, dying at -Larissa in extreme old age about the year 377 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -He had many pupils, among whom were his two sons Thessalus and Dracon, who -also undertook journeys, his son-in-law Polybus, of whose works a -fragment has been preserved for us by Aristotle,<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> -together with three other Coans bearing the names Apollonius, -Dexippus, and Praxagoras. This is practically all we know of him with -certainty. But though this glimpse is very dim and distant, yet we -cannot exaggerate the influence on the course of medicine and the -value for physicians of all time of the traditional picture that was -early formed of him and that may indeed well be drawn again from the -works bearing his name. In beauty and dignity that figure is beyond -praise. Perhaps gaining in stateliness what he loses in clearness, -Hippocrates will ever remain the type of the perfect physician. -Learned, observant, humane, with a profound reverence for the claims -of his patients, but an overmastering desire that his experience shall -benefit others, orderly and calm, disturbed only by anxiety to record -his knowledge for the use of his brother physicians and for the relief -of suffering, grave, thoughtful and reticent, pure of mind and master -of his passions, this is no overdrawn picture of the Father of Medicine -as he appeared to his contemporaries and successors. It is a figure of -character and virtue which has had an ethical value to medical men of -all ages comparable only to the influence exerted on their followers -by the founders of the great religions. If one needed a maxim to place -upon the statue of Hippocrates, none could be found better than that -from the book Παραγγελίαι, <i>Precepts</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i4">ἢν γὰρ παρῆ φιλανθρωπίη πάρεστὶ καὶ φιλοτεχνίη</span> -<span class="i0">‘Where the love of man is, there also is love of the Art.’<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></span> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <a id="FIG_1-2B" name="FIG_1-2B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_090a.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="342" /> - <p class="center">Fig. 1. <big>HIPPOCRATES</big></p> - <p class="center">British Museum, second or third century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <a><img src="images/i_090b.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="340" /></a> - <p class="center">Fig. 2. <big>ASCLEPIUS</big></p> - <p class="center">British Museum, fourth century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> - </div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> -The numerous busts of him which have reached our time are no portraits. -But the best of them are something much better and more helpful to us -than any portrait. They are idealized representations of the kind of -man a physician should be and was in the eyes of the best and wisest of -the Greeks. (<a href="#FIG_1-2B">See Fig. 1</a>.)</p> - -<p>The method of the Hippocratic writers is that known to-day as the -‘inductive’. Without the vast scientific heritage that is in our own -hands, with only a comparatively small number of observations drawn -from the Coan and neighbouring schools, surrounded by all manner of -bizarre oriental religions in which no adequate relation of cause and -effect was recognized, and above all constantly urged by the exuberant -genius for speculation of that Greek people in the midst of whom they -lived and whose intellectual temptations they shared, they remain -nevertheless, for the most part, patient observers of fact, sceptical -of the marvellous and the unverifiable, hesitating to theorize beyond -the data, yet eager always to generalize from actual experience; calm, -faithful, effective servants of the sick. There is almost no type of -mental activity known to us that was not exhibited by the Greeks and -cannot be paralleled from their writings; but careful and constant -return to verification from experience, expressed in a record of -actual observations—the habitual method adopted in modern scientific -departments—is rare among them except in these early medical authors.</p> - -<p>The spirit of their practice cannot be better illustrated than by the -words of the so-called ‘Hippocratic oath’: -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> - -<p class="blockquot">‘I swear by Apollo the healer, and Asclepius, and -Hygieia, and All-heal (Panacea) and all the gods and goddesses ... that, -according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and -this stipulation—to reckon him who taught me this Art as dear to -me as those who bore me ... to look upon his offspring as my own -brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they would learn it, without -fee or stipulation. By precept, lecture, and all other modes of -instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and -those of my teacher, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath -according to the Law of Medicine, but to none other. I will follow -that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, -I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever -is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any -one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; nor will I aid a woman to -produce abortion. With purity and holiness I will pass my life and -practise my Art.... Into whatever houses I enter, I will go there for -the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every act of mischief -and corruption; and above all from seduction.... Whatever in my -professional practice—or even not in connexion with it—I see or hear -in the lives of men which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not -divulge, deeming that on such matters we should be silent. While I -keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted me to enjoy life and the -practice of the Art, always respected among men, but should I break or -violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.’</p> - -<p>Respected equally throughout the ages by Arab, Jew, and Christian, -the oath remains the watchword of the profession of medicine.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> -The ethical value of such a declaration could not escape the attention even -of a Byzantine formalist, and it is interesting to observe that in our -oldest Greek manuscript of the Hippocratic text, dating from the tenth -century, this magnificent passage is headed by the words ‘from the oath -of Hippocrates according as it may be sworn by a Christian.’<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> - -<p>When we examine the Hippocratic corpus more closely, we discern that -not only are the treatises by many hands, but there is not even a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -uniform opinion and doctrine running through them. This is well brought -out by some of the more famous of the phrases of this remarkable -collection. Thus a well-known passage from the <i>Airs, Waters, and -Places</i> tells us that the Scythians attribute a certain physical -disability to a god, ‘but it appears to me’, says the author, ‘that -these affections are just as much divine as are all others and that no -disease is either more divine or more human than another, but that all -are equally divine, for each of them has its own nature, and none of -them arise without a natural cause.’ But, on the other hand, the author -of the great work on <i>Prognostics</i> advises us that when the physician -is called in he must seek to ascertain the nature of the affections -that he is treating, and especially ‘if there be anything divine in the -disease, and to learn a foreknowledge of this also.’<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> -We may note too that this sentence almost immediately precedes what -is perhaps the most famous of all the Hippocratic sentences, the -description of what has since been termed the <i>Hippocratic facies</i>. -This wonderful description of the signs of death may be given as an -illustration of the habitual attitude of the Hippocratic school towards -prognosis and of the very careful way in which they noted details:</p> - -<p class="blockquot">‘He [the physician] should observe thus in acute -diseases: first, the countenance of the patient, if it be like to -those who are in health, <i>and especially if it be like itself, for -this would be the best</i>; but the more unlike to this, the worse it is; -such would be these: <i>sharp nose, hollow eyes, collapsed temples</i>; -<i>ears cold, contracted, and their lobes turned out</i>; <i>skin about the -forehead rough, distended, and parched</i>; <i>the colour of the whole face -greenish or dusky</i>. If the countenance be so at the beginning of the -disease, and if this cannot be accounted for from the other symptoms, -inquiry must be made whether he has passed a sleepless night; whether -his bowels have been very loose; or whether he is suffering from -hunger; and if any of these be admitted the danger may be reckoned as -less; and it may be judged in the course of a day and night if the -appearance of the countenance proceed from these. But if none of these -be said to exist, and the symptoms do not subside in that time, be it -known for certain that death is at hand.’<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> -Again, in the work <i>On the Art [of Medicine]</i> we read: ‘I hold it to -be physicianly to abstain from treating those who are overwhelmed by -disease’,<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> -a prudent if inhumane procedure among a people who might regard the -doctor’s powers as partaking of the nature of magic, and perhaps a wise -course to follow at this day in some places not very far from Cos. Yet -in the book <i>On Diseases</i> we are advised even in the presence of an -incurable disease ‘to give relief with such treatment as is possible’.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> - -<p>Furthermore, works by authors of the Hippocratic school stand sometimes -in a position of direct controversy with each other. Thus in the -treatise <i>On the Heart</i> an experiment is set forth which is held to -prove that a part at least of imbibed fluid passes into the cavity -of the lung and thence to the parts of the body, a popular error in -antiquity which recurs in Plato’s <i>Timaeus</i>. This view, however, is -specifically held to be fallacious by the author of the work <i>On -Diseases</i>, who is supported by a polemical section in the surviving -Menon fragment.</p> - -<p>Passages like these have convinced all students that we have to deal -in this collection with a variety of works written at different dates -by different authors and under different conditions, a state that may -be well understood when we reflect that among the Greeks medicine was -a progressive study for a far longer period of time than has yet been -the case in the Western world. An account of such a collection can -therefore only be given in the most general fashion. The system or -systems of medicine that we shall thus attempt to describe was in vogue -up to the Alexandrian period, that is, to the beginning of the third -century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> - -<p>Anatomy and physiology, the basis of our modern system, was still a -very weak point in the knowledge of the pre-Alexandrians. The surface -form of the body was intimately studied in connexion especially with -fractures, but there is no evidence in the literature of the period of -any closer acquaintance with human anatomical structure.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> -The same fact is well borne out by Greek Art, for in its noblest period -the artist betrays no evidence of assistance derived from anatomization. -Such evidence is not found until we come to sculpture of Alexandrian -date, when the somewhat strained attitudes and exaggerated musculature -of certain works of the school of Pergamon suggest that the artist -derived hints, if not direct information, from anatomists who, we know, -were active at that time. It is not improbable, however, that separate -bones, if not complete skeletons, were commonly studied earlier, for -the surgical works of the Hippocratic collection, and especially those -on fractures and dislocations, give evidence of a knowledge of the -relations of bones to each other and of their natural position in -the body which could not be obtained, or only obtained with greatest -difficulty, without this aid.</p> - -<p>There are in the Hippocratic works a certain number of comparisons -between human and animal structures that would have been made possible -by surgical operations and occasional accidents. The view has been put -forward that some anatomical knowledge was derived through the practice -of augury from the entrails of sacrificial animals. It appears, -however, improbable that a system so scientific and so little related -to temple practice would have had much to learn from these sources, -and, moreover, since we know that animals were actually dissected as -early as the time of Alcmaeon it would be unnecessary to invoke the aid -of the priests. The unknown author of the περὶ τόπων τῶν κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -<i>On the sites of [diseases] in man</i>, a work written about 400 -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span>, declares indeed that ‘physical structure -is the basis of medicine’, but the formal treatises on anatomy that we possess -from Hippocratic times give the general anatomical standard of the corpus, -and it is a very disappointing one. The tract <i>On Anatomy</i>, though -probably of much later date (perhaps <i>c.</i> 330 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span>), -is inferior even to the treatise <i>On the Heart</i> (perhaps of about 400 -<span class="smcap">b. c.</span>).</p> - -<p>Physiology and Pathology are almost as much in the background as -anatomy in the Hippocratic collection. As a formal discipline and -part of medical education we find no trace of these studies among -the pre-Alexandrian physicians. But the meagreness of the number of -ascertained facts did not prevent much speculation among a people eager -to seek the causes of things. Of that speculation we learn much from -the fragments of contemporary medical writers and philosophers, from -the medical works of the Alexandrian period, and to some extent from -the Hippocratic writings themselves. But the wiser and more sober among -the writers of the Hippocratic corpus were bent on something other -than the causes of things. Their pre-occupation was primarily with the -suffering patient, and the best of them therefore excluded—and we may -assume consciously—all but the rarest references to such speculation.</p> - -<p>The general state of health of the body was considered by the -Hippocratists to depend on the distribution of the four elements, -earth, air, fire, and water, whose mixture (<i>crasis</i>) and cardinal -properties, dryness, warmth, coldness, and moistness, form the body -and its constituents. To these correspond the cardinal fluids, blood, -phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. The fundamental condition of life -is the <i>innate heat</i>, the abdication of which is death. This innate -heat is greatest in youth when most fuel is therefore required, but -gradually declines with age. Another necessity for the support of -life is the <i>pneuma</i> which circulates in the vessels. All this may -seem fanciful enough, but we may remember that the first half of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> -nineteenth century had waned before the doctrine of the humours which -had then lasted for at least twenty-two centuries became obsolete, and -perhaps it still survives in certain modern scientific developments. -Moreover, the finest and most characteristic of the Hippocratic works -either do not mention or but casually refer to these theories which are -not essential to their main pre-occupation. Their task of observation -of symptoms, of the separation of the essentials from the accidents of -disease, and of generalization from experience could go on unaffected -by any view of the nature of man and of the world. Even treatment, -which must almost of necessity be based on <i>some</i> theory of causation, -was little deflected by a view of elements and humours on which it was -impossible to act directly, while therapeutics was further safeguarded -from such influence by the doctrine of <i>Nature as the healer of -diseases</i>, νούσων φύσεις ἰητροί, the <i>vis medicatrix naturae</i> -of the later Latin writers and of the present day.</p> - -<p>Diseases are to be cured, in the Hippocratic view, by restoring the -disturbed harmony in the relation of the elements and humours. These, -in fact, tend naturally to an equilibrium and in most cases if left to -themselves will be brought to this state by the natural tendency to -recovery. The process is known as <i>pepsis</i> or, to give it the Latin -form, <i>coctio</i>, and the turning-point at which the effects of this -process exhibit themselves is the <i>crisis</i>, a term which, together -with some of its original content, has still a place in medicine. Such -a turning-point does in fact occur in many diseases, especially those -of a zymotic character, on certain special days, though undue emphasis -was laid by the Greek physicians upon the exact numerical character -of the event. It was no unimportant duty of the physician to assist -nature by bringing his remedies to bear at the critical times. If the -crisis is wanting, or if the remedies are applied at the wrong moment, -the disease may become incurable. But diseases were only immediately -or proximately caused by disturbances in the balance or harmony of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> -humours. This was a mere hypothesis, as the Hippocratists themselves -well knew. There were other more remote causes which came into the -actual purview of the physician, conditions which he could and did -study. Such conditions were, for instance, injudicious modes of life, -exposure to climatic changes, advancing age, and the like. Many of -these could be directly corrected. But for those that could not there -were various therapeutic measures at hand.</p> - -<p>That human bodies are and normally remain in a state of health, and -that on the whole they tend to recover from disease, is an attitude -so familiar to us to-day that we scarcely need to be reminded of it. -We live some twenty-three centuries later than Hippocrates; for some -sixteen of those centuries the civilized world thought that to retain -health periodical bleedings and potions were necessary; for the last -century or two we have been gradually returning on the Hippocratic -position!</p> - -<p>The chief glory of the Hippocratic collection regarded from the -clinical point of view is perhaps the actual description of cases. A -number of these—forty-two in all—have survived.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> -They are not only unique as a collection for nearly 2,000 years, but -they are still to this day models of what succinct clinical records -should be, clear and short, without a superfluous word, yet with all -that is most essential, and exhibiting merely a desire to record -the most important facts without the least attempt to prejudge the -case. They illustrate to the full the Greek genius for seizing on -the essential. The writer show’s not the least wish to exalt his own -skill. He seeks merely to put the data before the reader for his -guidance under like circumstances. It is a reflex of the spirit of full -honesty in which these men lived and worked that the great majority -of the cases are recorded to have died. Two of this remarkable little -collection may be given: -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> - -<p class="blockquot">‘The woman with quinsy, who lodged with Aristion: -her complaint began in the tongue; voice inarticulate; tongue red and -parched. <i>First day</i>, shivered, then became heated. <i>Third day</i>, rigor, -acute fever; reddish and hard swelling on both sides of neck and chest; -extremities cold and livid; respiration elevated; drink returned by the -nose; she could not swallow; alvine and urinary discharges suppressed. -<i>Fourth day</i>, all symptoms exacerbated. <i>Fifth day</i>, she died.’</p> - -<p>We probably have here to do with a case of diphtheria. The quinsy, -the paralysis of the palate leading to return of the food through -the nose, and the difficulty with speech and swallowing are typical -results of this affection which was here complicated by a spread of -the septic processes into the neck and chest, a not uncommon sequela -of the disease. The rapid onset of the conditions is rather unusual, -but may be explained if we regard the case as a mild and unnoticed -diphtheria, subsequently complicated by paralysis and by secondary -septic infection, for which reasons she came under observation.</p> - -<p class="blockquot">‘In Thasos, the wife of Delearces who lodged on -the plain, through sorrow was seized with an acute and shivering fever. -From first to last she always wrapped herself up in her bedclothes; -kept silent, fumbled, picked, bored and gathered hairs [from the -clothes]; tears, and again laughter; no sleep; bowels irritable, but -passed nothing; when urged drank a little; urine thin and scanty; -to the touch the fever was slight; coldness of the extremities. -<i>Ninth day</i>, talked much incoherently, and again sank into silence. -<i>Fourteenth day</i>, breathing rare, large, and spaced, and again hurried. -<i>Seventeenth day</i>, after stimulation of the bowels she passed even -drinks, nor could retain anything; totally insensible; skin parched -and tense. <i>Twentieth day</i>, much talk, and again became composed, -then voiceless; respiration hurried. <i>Twenty-first day</i>, died. Her -respiration throughout was rare and large; she was totally insensible; -always wrapped up in her bedclothes; throughout either much talk, or -complete silence.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -This second case is in part a description of low muttering delirium, -a common end of continued fevers such as, for instance, typhoid. The -description closely resembles the condition known now in medicine as -the ‘typhoid state’. Incidentally the case contains a reference to -a type of breathing common among the dying. The respiration becomes -deep and slow, as it sinks gradually into quietude and becomes rarer -and rarer until it seems to cease altogether, and then it gradually -becomes more rapid and so on alternately. This type of breathing is -known to physicians as ‘Cheyne-Stokes’ respiration in commemoration -of two distinguished Irish physicians of the last century who brought -it to the attention of medical men.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> -Recently it has been partially explained on a physiological basis. -We may note that there is another and even better pen-picture of -Cheyne-Stokes respiration in the Hippocratic collection. It is in the -famous case of ‘Philescos who lived by the wall and who took to his bed -on the first day of acute fever’. About the middle of the sixth day -he died and the physician notes that ‘the respiration throughout was -<i>like that of a person recollecting himself</i> and was large and rare’. -Cheyne-Stokes breathing is admirably described as ‘that of a person -recollecting himself’.</p> - -<p>Such records as these may be contrasted with certain others that have -come down from Greek antiquity. We may instance two steles discovered -at Epidaurus in 1885, bearing accounts of forty-four temple cures. The -following two are fair samples of the cures there described: -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>‘<i>Aristagora of Troizen.</i> She had tape-worm, and while she slept -in the Temple of Asclepius at Troizen, she saw a vision. She thought -that, as the god was not present, but was away in Epidaurus, his sons -cut off her head, but were unable to put it back again. Then they sent -a messenger to Asklepius asking him to come to Troizen. Meanwhile day -came, and the priest actually saw her head cut off from the body. -The next night Aristagora had a dream. She thought the god came from -Epidaurus and fastened her head on to her neck. Then he cut open her -belly, and stitched it up again. So she was cured.’</p> - -<p>‘A man had an abdominal abscess. He saw a vision, and thought that -the god ordered the slaves who accompanied him to lift him up and hold -him, so that his abdomen could be cut open. The man tried to get away, -but his slaves caught him and bound him. So Asclepius cut him open, rid -him of the abscess, and then stitched him up again, releasing him from -his bonds. Straightway he departed cured, and the floor of the Abaton -was covered with blood.’<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> -</div> - -<p>In the records of almost all temple cures, a great number of which -have survived in a wide variety of documents, an essential element is -the process of ἐγκοίμησις, <i>incubation</i> or temple sleep, usually in a -special sleeping-place or Abaton. The process has a close parallel in -certain modern Greek churches and in places of worship much further -West; there are even traces of it in these islands, and it is more than -probable that the Christian practice is descended by direct continuity -from the pagan.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> -The whole character of the temple treatment was—and is—of a kind to -suggest to the patient that he should dream of the god, an event -which therefore usually takes place. Such treatment by suggestion is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -applicable only to certain classes of disease and is always liable to -fall into the hands of fanatics and impostors. The difficulty that the -honest practitioner encounters is that the sufferer, in the nature -of the case, can hardly be brought to believe that his ailment is -what in fact it is, a lesion of the mind. It is this which gives the -miracle-monger his chance.</p> - -<p>Examine for a moment the two cases from Epidaurus, which are quite -typical of the series. We observe that the first is described simply -as a case of ‘tape-worm’ without any justification for the diagnosis. -It is not unfrequent nowadays for thin and anxious patients to state, -similarly without justification, that they suffer from this condition. -They attribute certain common gastric experiences to this cause of -which perhaps they have learned from sensational advertisements, -and then they ask cure for a condition which they themselves have -diagnosed, but which has no existence in fact. Such a case is often -appropriately treated by suggestion. Though the elaborateness of the -suggestion in the temple cure is a little startling, yet it can easily -be paralleled from the legends of the Christian saints. Moreover, we -must remember that we are not here dealing with an account set down by -the patient herself, but with an edificatory inscription put up by the -temple officials.</p> - -<p>In the second inscription, the man with an abdominal abscess, we have -a much simpler state of affairs. It is evident that an operation was -actually performed by the priest masquerading as Asclepius, while the -patient was held down by the slaves. He is assured that all is a dream -and departs cured with the tell-tale comment ‘and the floor of the -Abaton was covered with blood’.</p> - -<p>These cases might be multiplied indefinitely without great profit for -our particular theme, for in such matters there is no development, no -evolution, no history. There can be no doubt that a very large part -of Greek practice was on this level, as is a small part of modern -medicine, but it is not a level with which we are here dealing and we -shall therefore pass it by. But a word of caution must be added. Such -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -temple worship has been compared with modern psycho-analysis. That -method, like all methods, has doubtless been abused at times; but it is -in essence, unlike the temple system, a purely scientific process by -which the ultimate basis of the patient’s delusions are laid bare and -demonstrated to him.</p> - -<p>There is indeed another side to these Asclepian temples. They gradually -developed along the lines of our health resorts and developed many of -the qualities—lovely and unlovely—that we associate with certain -continental watering places. On the bad side they became gossiping -centres or even something little better than brothels, as we may gather -from the <i>Mimes</i> of Herondas. On the good side they formed a quiet -refuge among beautiful and interesting surroundings where the sick, -exhausted, and convalescent might gain the benefits that accrue from -pure air, fine scenery, and a regular and regulated mode of life. It is -more than probable too that the open air and manner of living benefited -many cases of incipient phthisis.</p> - -<p>Returning to the Hippocratic collection, the purely surgical treatises -will be found no less remarkable than those of clinical observation. -A very able surgeon, Francis Adams (1796-1861), who was eminent as a -Greek scholar, gave it as his opinion in the middle of the nineteenth -century that no systematic writer on surgery up to his time had given -so good and so complete an account of certain dislocations, notably of -the hip-joint, as that to be found in the Hippocratic collection. Some -types of injury to the hip, as described in the Hippocratic writings, -were certainly otherwise quite inadequately known until described -by Sir Astley Cooper (1768-1841), himself a peculiarly Hippocratic -character.<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> -The verdict of Adams was probably just, though since his time -the surgery of dislocations, aided especially by X-rays, has been -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -enabled to pass very definitely beyond the Hippocratic position. -Admirable, too, is the Hippocratic description of dislocation of -the shoulder and of the jaw. In dislocation of hip, shoulder, or -jaw, as in most similar lesions, there is considerable deformity -produced. The nature and meaning of this deformity is described with -remarkable exactness by the Hippocratic writer, who also sets forth -the resulting disability. The principles and indeed the very details -of treatment in these cases are, save for the use of an anaesthetic, -practically identical with those of the present day. The processes are -unfortunately not suitable for detailed quotation and description here, -but they are of special interest since a graphic record of them has -come down to us. There exists in the Laurentian Library at Florence -a ninth century Greek surgical manuscript which contains figures of -surgeons reducing the dislocations in question. There is good reason to -suppose that these miniatures are copied from figures first prepared -in pre-Christian times many centuries earlier, and we may here see the -actual processes of reduction of such fractures, as conducted by a -surgeon of the direct Hippocratic tradition<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> -(<a href="#FIG_3-4B">see Figs. 3, 4</a>).</p> - -<p>In keeping with all this is most of the surgical work of the -collection. We are almost startled by the modern sound of the whole -procedure as we run through the rough notebook κατ’ ἰητρεῖον, -<i>Concerning the Surgery</i>, or the more elaborate treatise περὶ ἰητροῦ, -<i>On the Physician</i>, where we may read minute directions for the -preparation of the operating-room, and on such points as the management -of light both artificial and natural, scrupulous cleanliness of -the hands, the care and use of the instruments, with the special -precautions needed when they are of iron, the decencies to be observed -during the operation, the general method of bandaging, the placing of -the patient, the use and abuse of splints, and the need for tidiness, -order, and cleanliness. Many of these directions are enlarged upon in -other surgical works of the collection, among which we find especially -full instructions for bandaging and for the diagnosis and treatment -of fractures and dislocations. A very fair representation of such a -surgery as these works describe is to be found on a vase-painting -of Ionic origin which is of the fifth century and therefore about -contemporary with Hippocrates himself (<a href="#FIG_05B">see fig. 5</a>). -There are also several beautiful representations on vases of the actual -processes of bandaging (<a href="#FIG_06B">fig. 6</a>).</p> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <p class="center">From MS. of APOLLONIUS OF KITIUM, of Ninth Century<br /> - Copied from a pre-Christian original</p> - <div class="figsub"> - <a id="FIG_3-4B" name="FIG_3-4B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_104a.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="460" /> - <p class="center">Fig. 3.<br /><big>REDUCING DISLOCATED SHOULDER</big></p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <a><img src="images/i_104b.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="455" /></a> - <p class="center">Fig. 4.<br /><big>REDUCING DISLOCATED JAW</big></p> - </div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> -Among the surgical procedures of which descriptions are to be found in -the Hippocratic writings are the opening of the chest for the condition -known as <i>empyema</i> (accumulation of pus within the pleura frequently -following pneumonia), and trephining the skull in cases of fracture of -that part—two fundamental operations of modern surgery. Surgical art -has advanced enormously in our own times, yet a text-book containing -much that is useful to this day might be prepared from these surgical -contents of the collection alone.</p> - -<p>When we pass to the works on Medicine, in the restricted sense, we -enter into a region more difficult and perhaps even more fascinating. -We are no longer dealing with simple lesions of known origin, but with -the effects of disease and degeneration, of the essential character -of which the Hippocratic writers could in the nature of the case know -very little. Rigidly guarding themselves from any attempt to explain -disease by more immediate and hypothetical causes and thus diverting -the reader’s energies in the medically useless direction of vague -speculation—the prevalent mental vice of the Greeks—the best of these -physicians are content if they can put forward generalized conclusions -from actually observed cases. Many of their thoughts have now become -household words, and they have become so, largely as a direct heritage -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -from these ancient physicians. But it must be remembered that ideas so -familiar to us were with them the result of long and carefully recorded -experience and are like nothing that we encounter in the medicine of -other ancient nations. Such conclusions are best set forth perhaps -in the wonderful book of the <i>Aphorisms</i> from which we may permit -ourselves a few quotations:</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_05B" name="FIG_05B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_106.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="232" /> - <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Fig. 5.</span> - A GREEK CLINIC OF ABOUT 400 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span><br /> - From a vase-painting.</p> - <div class="blockquot"> - <p>In the centre sits a physician holding a lancet and bleeding a - patient from the median vein at the bend of the right elbow into a - large open basin. Above and behind the physician are suspended three - cupping vessels. To the right sits another patient awaiting his turn; - his left arm is bandaged in the region of the biceps. The figure beyond - him smells a flower, perhaps as a preservative against infection. - Behind the physician stands a man leaning on a staff; he is wounded in - the left leg, which is bandaged. By his side stands a dwarfish figure - with disproportionately large head, whose body exhibits deformities - typical of the developmental disease now known as <i>Achondroplasia</i>; - in addition to these deformities we note that his body is hairy and - the bridge of his nose sunken; on his back he carries a hare which is - almost as tall as himself. Talking to the dwarf is a man leaning on a - long staff, who has the remains of a bandage round his chest.</p> - - <p>See E. Pottier, ‘Une Clinique grecque au Vᵉ siècle (vase antique du - collection Peztel)’, <i>Fondation Eugène Piot, Monuments et Mémoires</i>, - xiii. 149, Paris, 1906. (Some of our interpretations differ from those - of M. Pottier.)</p> - </div> -</div> - -<p class="space-below2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_06B" name="FIG_06B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_107.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="504" /> - <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Fig. 6.</span></p> - <p class="blockquot">A kylix from the Berlin Museum of about 490 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> - It bears the inscription <b>ΣΟΣΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕΝ</b>, <i>Sosias made (me)</i>, - and represents Achilles bandaging Patroclus, the names of the two - heroes being written round the margin. The painter is Euphronios, and - the work is regarded as the masterpiece of that great artist. The left - upper arm of Patroclus is injured, and Achilles is bandaging it with - a two-rolled bandage, which he is trying to bring down to extend over - the elbow. The treatment of the hands, a department in which Euphronios - excelled, is particularly fine. Achilles was not a trained surgeon, - and it will be observed, from the position of the two tails of the - bandage, that he will have some difficulty when it comes to its final fastening!</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -‘Life is short, and the Art long; the opportunity fleeting; experiment -dangerous, and judgement difficult. Yet we must be prepared not only -to do our duty ourselves, but also patient, attendants, and external -circumstances must co-operate.’<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p> - -<p>In this one memorable paragraph, so condensed in the original as -to be almost untranslatable, he who ‘first separated medicine from -philosophy’ puts aside at once all speculative interest while in the -actual presence of the sick. His whole energy is concentrated on the -case in hand with that peculiar attitude, at once impersonal and -intensely personal, that has since been the mark of the physician, and -that has made of Medicine both a science and an art.</p> - -<p>‘For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure.’<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> - -<p>‘The aged endure fasting most easily; next adults; next young persons, -and least of all children, and especially such as are the most lively.’</p> - -<p>‘Growing bodies have the most innate heat; they therefore require the -most nourishment, and if they have it not they waste. In the aged there -is little heat, and therefore they require little fuel, for it would be -extinguished by much. Similarly fevers in the aged are not so acute, -because their bodies are cold.’</p> - -<p>‘In disease sleep that is laborious is a deadly symptom; but if sleep -relieves it is not deadly.’</p> - -<p>‘Sleep that puts an end to delirium is a good symptom.’</p> - -<p>‘If a convalescent eats well, but does not put on flesh, -it is a bad symptom.’</p> - -<p>‘Food or drink which is a little less good but more palatable, is to be -preferred to such that is better but less palatable.’ -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> - -<p>‘The old have generally fewer complaints than young; but those chronic -diseases which do befall them generally never leave them.’</p> - -<p>Here we have a group of observations, some of which have become -literally household words, nor is it difficult to understand how -such sayings have passed from professional into lay keeping. This -magnificent book of <i>Aphorisms</i> was very early translated into Latin, -probably before and certainly not later than the sixth century of -the Christian era, and thus became accessible throughout the West. -Manuscripts of this Latin version, dating from the ninth and tenth -centuries of our era, have survived in the actual places in which they -were written, at Monte Cassino in Southern Italy and at Einsiedeln in -Switzerland, and in 991 the book of <i>Aphorisms</i> was well known and -closely studied at the Cathedral school of Chartres. From France the -<i>Aphorisms</i> reached England, and they are mentioned in documents of the -tenth or eleventh century. By now, too, the book had been translated -into Syriac and later into Arabic and Hebrew, so that in the true -mediaeval period it was known both East and West, and in the vernacular -as well as the classical tongues. From the oriental dialects several -further translations were again made into Latin. An enormous number of -manuscripts of the work have survived in almost every Western dialect, -and these show on the whole that the text has been surprisingly little -tampered with. In the middle of the thirteenth century some of the -better-known Aphorisms were absorbed into a very popular Latin poem -that went forth in the name of the medical school of Salerno, though -with a false ascription to a yet earlier date. The Salernitan poem, -being itself translated into every European vernacular, further helped -to bring Hippocrates into every home.</p> - -<p>But by no means all the Aphorisms are of a kind that could well become -absorbed into folk medicine. It is only those concerning frequently -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -recurring states to which this fate could befall. The book contains -also a number of notes on rare conditions seldom seen or noted save by -medical men. Such are the following very acute observations:</p> - -<p>‘Spasm supervening on a wound is fatal.’</p> - -<p>‘Those seized with tetanus die within four days, or if they survive so -long they recover.’</p> - -<p>‘A convulsion, or hiccup, supervening on a copious discharge of blood -is bad.’</p> - -<p>‘If after severe and grave wounds no swelling appears, it is very -serious.’</p> - -<p>These four sentences all concern wounds. The first two refer to the -disease <i>tetanus</i>, which is very liable to supervene on wounds fouled -with earth, especially in hot and moist localities. The disease is -characterized by a series of painful muscular contractions which in -the more severe and fatal form may become a continuous spasm, a type -that is referred to in the first sentence. It is true of tetanus that -the later the onset after the wound is sustained the better the chance -of recovery. This is brought out by the second sentence. The third and -fourth sentences record untoward symptoms following a severe wound, -now well recognized and watched for by every surgeon. There were, of -course, innumerable illustrations of the truth of these Aphorisms in -extensive wounds, especially those involving crushed limbs, in the late war.</p> - -<p>‘Phthisis occurs most commonly between the ages of eighteen and -thirty-five.’</p> - -<p>‘Diarrhœa supervening on phthisis is mortal.’</p> - -<p>The period given by the <i>Aphorisms</i> for the maximum frequency of onset -of the disease is closely borne out by modern observations. The second -Aphorism is equally valid; continued diarrhœa is a very frequent -antecedent of the fatal event in chronic phthisis, and post-mortem -examination has shown that secondary involvement of the bowel is an -exceedingly common condition in this disease. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> - -<p>No less remarkable is the following saying: ‘In jaundice it is a grave -matter if the liver becomes indurated.’ Jaundice is a common and -comparatively trivial symptom following or accompanying a large variety -of diseases. In and by itself it is of little importance and almost -always disappears spontaneously. There is a small group of pathological -conditions, however, in which this is not the case. The commonest and -most important of these are the fatal affections of cirrhosis and -cancer of the liver in which that organ may be felt to be enlarged and -hardened. If therefore the liver can be so felt in a case of jaundice, -it is, as the Aphorism says, of gravest import. Representations of -such cases have actually come down to us from Greek times. Thus on -a monument erected at Athens to the memory of a physician who died -in the second century of the Christian era we may see the process of -clinical examination (<a href="#FIG_07C">fig. 7</a>). The physician is palpating -the liver of a dwarfish figure whose swollen belly, wasted limbs, and anxious -look tell of some such condition as that described in the Aphorism. The -ridge caused by the enlarged liver can even be detected on the statue.</p> - -<p>‘We must attend to the appearances of the eyes in sleep as presented -from below; for if a portion of the white be seen between the closing -eyelids, and if this be not connected with diarrhœa or severe purging, -it is a very bad and mortal symptom.’ In this, the last Aphorism which -we shall quote, we see the Hippocratic physician actually making his -observations. Now during sleep the eyeball is turned upward, so that -if the eye be then opened and examined only the white is seen. In the -later stages of all wasting and chronic diseases the eyelids tend not -to be closed during sleep. Such patients, as is well known, often die -with the eyes open and sometimes exhibiting only the whites.</p> - -<p>But the Hippocratic physician was not content to make only passive -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -observation; he also took active measures to elicit the ‘physical -signs’. In modern times a large, perhaps the chief, task of the student -of medicine is to acquire a knowledge of these so-called physical -signs of disease, the tradition of which has been gradually rebuilt -during the last three centuries. Among the most important measures -in which he learns to acquire facility is that of auscultation. This -useful process has come specially into vogue since the invention of -the stethoscope in 1819 by Laennec, who derived valuable hints for it -from the Hippocratic writings. Auscultation is several times mentioned -and described by the Hippocratic physicians, who used the direct -method of listening and not the mediate method devised by Laennec. -There are, however, certain cases in which the modern physician still -finds the older non-instrumental Hippocratic method superior. In the -Hippocratic work περὶ νούσων, <i>On diseases</i>, we read of a case with -fluid in the pleura that ‘you will place the patient on a seat which -does not move, an assistant will hold him by the shoulders, and you -will shake him, applying the ear to the chest, so as to recognize on -which side the sign occurs’. This sign is still used by physicians and -is known as <i>Hippocratic succussion</i>. In another passage in the same -work the symptoms of pleurisy are described and ‘a creak like that of -leather may be heard’. This is the well known <i>pleuritic rub</i> which the -physician is accustomed to seek in such cases, and of which the creak -of leather is an excellent representation.</p> - -<p>Such quotations give an insight into the general method and attitude -of the Hippocratics. Of an art such as medicine, which even in those -times had a long and rational tradition behind it, it is impossible to -give more than the merest glimpse in such a review as this. The actual -practice is far too complex to set down briefly. This is especially the -case with the ancient teaching as regards epidemic disease at which -we must cursorily glance. The Hippocratic physicians and indeed all -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> -antiquity were as yet ignorant of the nature, and were but dimly -aware of the existence, of infection.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> -For them acute disease was something imposed on the patient from -outside, but how it reached him from outside and what it was that thus -reached him they were still admittedly ignorant. In this dilemma they -turned to prolonged observation and noted as a result of repeated -experience that epidemic diseases in their world had characteristic -seasonal and regional distributions. One country was not quite like -another, nor was one season like another nor even one year like -another. By a series of carefully collated observations as to how -regions, seasons, and years differed from each other, they succeeded -in laying the basis of a rational study of epidemiology which gave -rise to the notion of an ‘epidemic constitution’ of the different -years, a conception which was very fertile and stimulating to the great -clinicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is by no -means without value even for the modern epidemiologist. The work of the -modern fathers of epidemiology was consciously based on Hippocrates.</p> - -<p>Before parting with the Hippocratic physician a word must be said as -to his therapeutic means. His general armoury may be described as -resembling that of the modern physician of about two generations ago. -During those two generations we have, it is true, added to our list of -effective remedies but, on the other hand, there has been by common -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -consent a return to the Hippocratic simplicity of treatment. After -rest and quiet the central factor in treatment was Dietetics. This -science regarded the age—‘Old persons use less nutriment than young’; -the season—‘In winter abundant nourishment is wholesome, in summer -a more frugal diet’; the bodily condition—‘Lean persons should take -little food, but this little should be fat, fat persons on the other -hand should take much food, but it should be lean’. Respect was -also paid to the digestibility of different foods—‘white meat is -more easily digestible than dark’—and to their preparation. Water, -barley water, and lime water were recommended as drinks. The dietetic -principles of the Hippocratics, especially in connexion with fevers, -are substantially those of the present day, and it may be said that -the general medical tendency of the last generation in these matters -has been an even closer approximation to the Hippocratic. ‘The more we -nourish unhealthy bodies the more we injure them’; ‘The sick upon whom -fever seizes with the greatest severity from the very outset, must at -once subject themselves to a rigid diet’; ‘Complete abstinence often -acts well, if the strength of the patient can in any way sustain it’; -yet ‘We should examine the strength of the sick, to see whether they be -in condition to maintain this spare diet to the crisis of the disease’. -‘In the application of these rules we must always be mindful of the -strength of the patient and of the course of each particular disease, -as well as of the constitution and ordinary mode of life in each disease.’</p> - -<p>Besides diet the Hippocratic physician had at his disposal a -considerable variety of other remedies. Baths, inunctions, clysters, -warm and cold suffusions, massage and gymnastic, as well as gentler -exercise are among them. He probably employed cupping and bleeding -rather too freely, and we have several representations of the -instruments used for these operations (<a href="#FIG_08B">fig. 8</a>). He was -no great user of drugs and seldom names them except, we may note, in the works -on the treatment of women, which are probably of Cnidian origin and whence the -greater part of the 300 constituents of the Hippocratic pharmacopœia -are derived. Thus his list of drugs is small, but several known to him -are still used by us.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_07C" name="FIG_07C"> </a> - <img src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="574" /> - <p class="center">Fig. 7. <big>ATHENIAN FUNERARY MONUMENT</big><br /> - Second century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> British Museum</p> - <p class="center">Inscription reads: ‘Jason, also called Dekmos, the Acharnian, a physician’,<br /> - followed by his genealogy. By side of patient stands a cupping vessel.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> -The work of these men may be summed up by saying that without -dissection, without any experimental physiology or pathology, and -without any instrumental aid they pushed the knowledge of the course -and origin of disease as far as it is conceivable that men in such -circumstances could push it. This was done as a process of pure -scientific induction. Their surgery, though hardly based on anatomy, -was grounded on the most carefully recorded experience. In therapeutics -they allowed themselves neither to be deceived by false hopes nor led -aside by vain traditions. Yet in diagnosis, prognosis, surgery and -therapeutics alike they were in many departments unsurpassed until -the nineteenth century, and to some of their methods we have reverted -in the twentieth. Persisting throughout the ages as a more or less -definite tradition, which attained clearer form during and after the -sixteenth century, Hippocratic methods have formed the basis of all -departments of modern advance.</p> - -<p>But the history of Greek medicine did not end with the Hippocratic -collection; in many respects it may indeed be held only to begin there; -yet we never get again a glimpse of so high an ethical and professional -standard as that which these works convey. From Alexandrian times -onwards, too, the history of Greek medicine becomes largely a history -of various schools of medical thought, each of which has only a partial -view of the course and nature of medical knowledge. The unravelling of -the course and teachings of these sects has long been a pre-occupation -of professed medical historians, but the general reader can hardly -take an interest in differences between the Dogmatists, Empirics, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -Methodists whose doctrines are as dead as themselves. In this later -Alexandrian and Hellenistic age the Greek intellect is no less active -than before, but there is a change in the taste of the material. A -general decay of the spirit is reflected in the medical as in the -literary products of the time, and we never again feel that elevation -of a beautiful and calmly righteous presence that breathes through the -Hippocratic collection and gives it a peculiar aroma.</p> - -<p>We shall pass over the general course of later Greek medicine with -great rapidity. A definite medical school was established at Alexandria -and others perhaps at Pergamon and elsewhere. Athens, after the death -of Aristotle and his pupils, passes entirely into the background and is -of no importance so far as medicine is concerned. At Alexandria, where -a great medical library was collected, anatomy began to be studied and -two men whose discoveries were of primary importance for the history of -that subject, Erasistratus and Herophilus, early practised there. With -anatomy as a basis medical education could become much more systematic. -It is a very great misfortune that the works of these two eminent men -have disappeared. Of Herophilus fragments have survived embedded in -the works of Galen (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> 130-201), Caelius Aurelianus -(fifth century), and others. These fragments have been the subject of one of -the earliest, most laborious, and most successful attempts made in -modern times to reconstruct the lost work of an ancient author.<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> -For Erasistratus our chief source of information are two polemical -treatises directed against him by Galen. Recently, too, a little more -information concerning the works of both men has become available from -the Menon papyrus.</p> - -<p>It has been found possible to reconstruct especially a treatise on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -anatomy by Herophilus with a considerable show of probability. He -opened by giving general directions for the process of dissection and -followed with detailed descriptions of the various systems, nervous, -vascular, glandular, digestive, generative, and osseous. There was a -separate section on the liver, a small part of which has survived. -It is of his account of the nervous system that we have perhaps the -best record, and it is evident that he has advanced far beyond the -Hippocratic position. In the braincase he saw the membranes that cover -the brain and distinguished between the cerebrum and cerebellum. He -attained to some knowledge of the ventricles of the brain, the cranial -and spinal nerves, the nerves of the heart, and the coats of the eye. -He distinguished the blood sinuses of the skull, and the <i>torcular -Herophili</i> (winepress of Herophilus), a sinus described by him, has -preserved his name in modern anatomical nomenclature. He even made out -more minute structures, such as the little depression in the fourth -ventricle of the brain, known to modern anatomists as the <i>calamus -scriptorius</i>, which still bears the name which he gave it (κάλαμος ῷ -γράφομεν), because it seemed to him, as Galen tells us, to resemble -the pens then in use in Alexandria.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> -We still use, too, his term <i>duodenum</i> (δωδεκαδάκτυλος ἔκφυσις = twelve-finger extension), -for as Galen assures us, Herophilus ‘so named the first part of the intestine -before it is rolled into folds‘.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> -The duodenum is a U-shaped section of the intestine following -immediately on the stomach. Being fixed down behind the abdominal -cavity it cannot be further convoluted, and this accounts for Galen’s -description of it. It is about twelve fingers’ breadth long in the -animals dissected by Herophilus.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -Erasistratus, the slightly younger Alexandrian contemporary of -Herophilus, has the credit of further anatomical discoveries. He -described correctly the action of the epiglottis in preventing the -entrance of food and drink into the windpipe during the act of -swallowing, he saw the lacteal vessels in the mesentery, and pursued -further the anatomy of the brain. He improved on the anatomy of the -heart, and described the auriculo-ventricular valves and their mode -of closure. He distinguished clearly the motor and sensory nerves. He -seems to have adopted a definitely experimental attitude—a very rare -thing among ancient physicians—and a description of an experiment -made by him has recently been recovered. ‘If ’, he says, ‘you take an -animal, a bird, for example, and keep it for a time in a jar without -giving it food and then weigh it together with its excreta you will -find that there is a considerable loss of weight.’<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> -The experiment is a simple one, but it was about nineteen hundred years -before a modern professor, Sanctorio Santorio (1561-1636), thought of -repeating it.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> - -<p>The anatomical advances made by the Alexandrian school naturally -reacted on surgical efficiency. The improvement so effected may be -gathered, for instance, from an account of the anatomical relationships -in certain cases of dislocation of the hip given by the Alexandrian -surgeon Hegetor, who lived about 100 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> In his book περὶ -αἰτιῶν, <i>On causes [of disease]</i>, he asks ‘why (certain surgeons) do -not seek another way of reducing a luxation of the hip.... If the -joints of the jaw, shoulder, elbow, knee, finger, &c., can be replaced, -the same, they think, must be true of all parts, nor can they give an -account of why the femur cannot be put back into its place.... They -might have known, however, that from the head of the femur arises a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -ligament which is inserted into the socket of the hip bone ... and if -this ligament is once ruptured the thigh bone cannot be retained in -place’.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> -This passage contains the first description of the structure known to -modern anatomists as the <i>ligamentum teres</i>, a strong fibrous band -which unites the head of the femur with the socket into which it -fits in the hip bone, like the string that binds the cup and ball of -a child’s toy. This ligament is ruptured in certain severe cases of -dislocation of the hip.</p> - -<p>After the establishment of the school at Alexandria, medical teaching -rapidly became organized, but throughout the whole course of -antiquity it suffered from the absence of anything in the nature of -a state diploma. Any one could practise, with the result that many -quacks, cranks, and fanatics were to be found among the ranks of the -practitioners who often were or had been slaves. The great Alexandrian -school, however, did much to preserve some sort of professional -standard, and above all its anatomical discipline helped to this end.</p> - -<p>Between the founding of the Alexandrian school and Galen we are not -rich in medical writings. Apart from fragments and minor productions, -the works of only five authors have survived from this period of -over four hundred years, namely, Celsus, Dioscorides, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, -and two Ephesian authors bearing the names of Rufus and Soranus.</p> - -<p>The work of Celsus of the end of the first century <span class="smcap">b. c.</span> - is a Latin treatise, probably translated from Greek, and is the surviving -medical volume of a complete cyclopaedia of knowledge. In spite of its -unpromising origin it is an excellent compendium of its subject and -shows a good deal of advance in many respects beyond the Hippocratic -position. The moral tone too is very high, though without the lofty and -detached beauty of Hippocrates. Anatomy has greatly improved, and with -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> -it surgical procedure, and the work is probably representative of the -best Alexandrian practice. The pharmacopœia is more copious, but has -not yet become burdensome. The general line of treatment is sensible -and humane and the language concise and clear. Among other items he -describes dental practice, with the indications for and methods of -tooth extraction, the wiring of teeth, and perhaps a dental mirror. -There is an excellent account of what might be thought to be the modern -operation for removal of the tonsils. Celsus is still commemorated -in modern medicine by the <i>area Celsi</i>, a not uncommon disease of -the skin. The <i>De re medica</i> is in fact one of the very best medical -text-books that have come down to us from antiquity. It has had a -romantic history. Forgotten during the Middle Ages, it was brought -to light by the classical scholar Guarino of Verona (1374-1460) -in 1426, and a better copy was discovered by his friend Lamola in -1427. Another copy was found by Thomas Parentucelli (1397-1455), -afterwards Pope Nicholas V in 1443, and the text was later studied by -Politian (1454-94). Though one of the latest of the great classical -medical texts to be discovered, it was one of the first to be printed -(Florence, 1478), and it ran through very many early editions and had -great influence on the medical renaissance.</p> - -<p>After Celsus comes Dioscorides in the first century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span> -He was a Greek military surgeon of Cilician origin who served under Nero, -and in him the Greek intellect is obviously beginning to flag. His work -is prodigiously important for the history of botany, yet so far as -rational medicine is concerned he is almost negligible. He begins at -the wrong end, either giving lists of drugs with the symptoms that they -are said to cure or to relieve, or lists of symptoms with a series of -named drugs. Clinical observation and record are wholly absent, and the -spirit of Hippocrates has departed from this elaborate pharmacopœia.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a id="FIG_08B" name="FIG_08B"> </a> - <img src="images/i_120.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="370" /> - <div class="blockquot"> - <p class="center">Fig. 8. VOTIVE TABLET representing cupping and - bleeding instruments from Temple of Asclepius at Athens.</p> - <p class="center space-below2">In centre is represented a folding case containing scalpels - of various forms. On either side are cupping vessels.</p> - </div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -With the second century of the Christian era we terminate the creative -period of Greek medicine. We are provided with the works of four -important writers of this century, of whom three, Rufus of Ephesus, -Soranus of Ephesus, and Aretaeus of Cappadocia, though valuable for -forming a picture of the state of medicine in their day, were without -substantial influence on the course of medicine in later ages.</p> - -<p>Rufus of Ephesus, a little junior to Dioscorides, has left us the first -formal work on human anatomy and is of some importance in the history -of comparative anatomy. In medicine he is memorable as the first to -have described bubonic plague, and in surgery for his description of -the methods of arresting haemorrhage and his knowledge of the anatomy -of the eye. A work by him <i>On gout</i> was translated into Latin in the -sixth century, but remained unknown till modern times.</p> - -<p>Soranus of Ephesus (<span class="smcap">a. d.</span> <i>c.</i> 90-<i>c.</i> 150), -an acute writer on gynaecology, has left a book which illustrates well the anatomy -of his day. It exercised an influence for many centuries to come, and a -Latin abstract of it prepared about the sixth century by one Moschion -has come down to us in an almost contemporary manuscript.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> -It is interesting as opposing the Hippocratic theory that the male embryo -is originated in the right and the female in the left half of the -womb, a fallacy derived originally from Empedocles and Parmenides, -but perpetuated by Latin translations of the Hippocratic treatises -until the seventeenth century. His work was adorned by figures, and -some of these, naturally greatly altered by copyists, but still not -infinitely removed from the facts, have survived in a manuscript of the -ninth century, and give us a distant idea of the appearance of ancient -anatomical drawings.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> -We may assist our imagination a little further, in forming an -idea of what such diagrams were like, with the help of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -certain other mediaeval figures representing the form and distribution -of the various anatomical ‘systems’, veins, arteries, nerves, bones, -and muscles which are probably traceable to an Alexandrian origin.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> - -<p>Aretaeus of Cappadocia was probably a contemporary of Galen (second -half of the second century <span class="smcap">a. d.</span>). As a clinical author -his reputation stands high, perhaps too high, his descriptions of -pneumonia, emphysema, diabetes, and elephantiasis having especially -drawn attention. In treatment he uses simple remedies, is not affected -by polypharmacy, and suggests many ingenious mechanical devices. It -would appear that Aretaeus is not an independent writer, but mainly a -compiler. He relies largely on Archigenes, a distinguished physician -contemporary with Juvenal, whose works have perished save the fragments -preserved in this manner by Aretaeus and Aetius. Aretaeus was a very -popular writer among the Greeks in all ages, but he was not translated -into Latin, and was unknown in the West until the middle of the -sixteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> -He is philologically interesting as still using the Ionic dialect.</p> - -<p>There remains the huge overshadowing figure of Galen. The enormous mass -of the surviving work of this man, the dictator of medicine until the -revival of learning and beyond, tends to throw out of perspective the -whole of Greek medical records. The works of Galen alone form about -half of the mass of surviving Greek medical writings, and occupy, in -the standard edition, twenty-two thick, closely-printed volumes. These -cover every department of medicine, anatomy, physiology, pathology, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> -medical theory, therapeutics, as well as clinical medicine and surgery. -In style they are verbose and heavy and very frequently polemical. They -are saturated with a teleology which, at times, becomes excessively -tedious. In the anatomical works, masses of teleological explanation -dilute the account of often imperfectly described structures. Yet to -this element we owe the preservation of the mass of Galen’s works, for -his intensely teleological point of view appealed to the theological -bias both of Western Christianity and of Eastern Islam. Intolerable -as literature, his works are a valuable treasure house of medical -knowledge and experience, custom, tradition, and history.</p> - -<p>As in the case of the Hippocratic corpus, so in the case of the -Galenic corpus we are dealing to some extent with material from -various sources. In the case of Galen, however, we have a good -standard of genuineness, for he has left us a list of his books -which can be checked off against those which we actually possess. -The general standpoint of the Galenic is not unlike that of the -Hippocratic writings, but the noble vision of the lofty-minded, -pure-souled physician has utterly passed away. In his place we have -an acute, honest, very contentious fellow, bristling with energy and -of prodigious industry, not unkindly, but loving strife, a thoroughly -‘aggressive’ character. He loves truth, but he loves argument quite -as much. The value of his philosophical writings, of which some have -survived, cannot be discussed here, but it is evident that he is -frequently satisfied with purely verbal explanations. An ingenious -physiologist, a born experimenter, an excellent anatomist and eager -to improve, possessing a good knowledge of the human skeleton and an -accurate acquaintance with the internal parts so far as this can be -derived from a most industrious devotion to dissection of animals, -equipped with all the learning of the schools of Pergamon, Smyrna, and -Alexandria, and rich with the experience of a vast practice at Rome, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> -Galen is essentially an ‘efficient’ man. He has the grace to -acknowledge constantly and repeatedly his indebtedness to the -Hippocratic writings. Such was the man whose remains, along with the -Hippocratic collection, formed the main medical legacy of Greece to the -Western world.</p> - -<p>Some of Galen’s works are mere drug lists, little superior to those -of Dioscorides;<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a -href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> with the depression -of the intelligence that corresponded with the break up of the Roman -Empire, it was these that were chiefly seized on and distributed in -the West. Attractive too to the debased intellect of the late Roman -world were certain spurious, superstitious, and astrological works that -circulated in the name of Galen and Hippocrates.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> -The Greek medical writers after Galen were but his imitators and -abstractors, but through some of them Galen’s works reached the West -at a very early period in the Middle Ages. Such abstractors who were -early translated into Latin were Oribasius (325-403), Paul of Aegina -(625-690), and Alexander of Tralles (525-605). Of the best and most -scientific of Galen’s works the Middle Ages knew little or nothing.</p> - -<p>Later Galen and Hippocrates became a little more accessible, not by -translation from the Greek, but by translation from the Arabic of a -Syriac version. The first work to be so rendered was a version of -<i>Aphorisms</i> of Hippocrates which, however, as we have seen, were -already available in Latin dress, together with the Hippocratic -<i>Regimen in acute diseases</i>, and certain works of Galen as corruptly -interpreted by Isaac Judaeus. These were rendered from Arabic into -Latin by Constantine, an African adventurer who became a monk at Monte -Cassino and died there in 1087. Constantine was a wretched craftsman -with an imperfect knowledge of both Arabic and Latin. More effective -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> -was the great twelfth century translator from the Arabic, Gerard of -Cremona (died 1185), who turned many medical works into Latin from -Arabic, and who was followed by a whole host of imitators. Yet more -important for the advance of medicine, however, was the learned -revival of the thirteenth century. In the main that revival was based -on translations from Arabic, but a certain number of works were -also rendered direct from the Greek. During the thirteenth century -Aristotle’s scientific works began to be treated in this way, but more -important for the course of medicine were those of Galen, and they had -to wait till the following century. The long treatise of Galen, περὶ -χρείας τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώπου σώματι μορίων, <i>On the uses of the bodily parts -in man</i>, was translated from the Greek into Latin by Nicholas of Reggio -in the earlier part of the fourteenth century. This work, with all its -defects, was by far the best account of the human body then available. -Many manuscripts of the Latin version have survived, and it was -translated into several vernaculars, including English, and profoundly -influenced surgery. The rendering into Latin of this treatise, and -its wide distribution, may be regarded as the starting-point of -modern scientific medicine. Its appearance is moreover a part of the -phenomenon of the revived interest in dissection which had begun to be -practised in the Universities in the thirteenth century,<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> -and was a generally accepted discipline in the fourteenth and -fifteenth.<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> -Until the end of the fifteenth century progress in anatomy was -almost imperceptible. During the fifteenth century more Galenic and -Hippocratic texts were recovered and gradually turned into Latin, but -still without vitally affecting the course of Anatomy. The actual -printing of collected editions of Hippocrates and Galen came rather -late, for the debased taste of the Renaissance physicians continued to -prefer Dioscorides and the Arabs, of whom numerous editions appeared, -so that medicine made no advance corresponding to the progress of -scholarship. The Hippocratic works were first printed in 1525, and an -isolated edition of the inferior Galen in 1490, but the real advance -in Medicine was not made by direct study of these works. So long as -they were treated in the old scholastic spirit such works were of -no more value than those of the Arabists or others inherited from -the Middle Ages. Even Hippocrates can be spoilt by a commentary, and -it was not until the investigator began actually to compare his own -observations with those of Hippocrates and Galen that the real value -of these works became apparent. The department in which this happened -first was Anatomy, and such revolutionaries as Leonardo da Vinci -(1452-1518), who never published, and Vesalius (1514-1564), whose -great work appeared in 1543, were really basing their work on Galen, -though they were much occupied in proving Galen’s errors. Antonio -Benivieni (died 1502), an eager prophet of the new spirit, revived the -Hippocratic tradition by actually collecting notes of a few cases with -accompanying records of deaths and post-mortem findings, among which it -is interesting to observe a case of appendicitis.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> -His example was occasionally followed during the sixteenth century, -as for instance, by the Portuguese Jewish physician Amatus Lusitanus -(1511-<i>c.</i> 1562), who printed no fewer than seven hundred cases; -but the real revival of the Hippocratic tradition came in the next -century with Sydenham (1624-1689) and Boerhaave (1668-1738), who were -consciously working on the Hippocratic basis and endeavouring to extend -the Hippocratic experience.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> -Lastly surgery came to profit by the revival. The greatest of the -sixteenth century surgeons, the lovable and loving Ambroise Paré -(1510-1590), though he was, as he himself humbly confessed, an ignorant -man knowing neither Latin nor Greek, can be shown to have derived much -from the works of antiquity, which were circulating in translation in -his day and were thus filtering down to the unlearned.</p> - -<p>Texts of Hippocrates and of Galen had formed an integral part in the -medical instruction of the universities from their commencement in -the thirteenth century. The first Greek text of the <i>Aphorisms</i> of -Hippocrates appeared in 1532, edited by no less a hand than that of -François Rabelais. With the further recovery of the Greek texts and -preparation of better translations, these became almost the sole mode -of instruction during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The -translators became legion and their competence varied. One highly -skilled translator, however, is of special interest to English -readers. Thomas Linacre (1460?-1524), Physician to Henry VIII, Tutor -to the Princess Mary, founder and first president of the College of -Physicians, a benefactor of both the ancient Universities and one -of the earliest, ablest, most typical, and most exasperating of the -English humanists, spent much energy on this work of translation for -which his abilities peculiarly fitted him. He was responsible for -no less than six important works of Galen, of which one, the <i>De -temperamentis et de inaequali intemperie</i>, printed at Cambridge in -1521, was among the earliest books impressed in that town and is said -to be the first printed in England for which Greek types were used. It -has been honoured by reproduction in facsimile in modern times. Such -works as these, purely literary efforts, had great vogue for a century -and more, and were much in use in the Universities. These humanistic -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -products sometimes produced, among the advocates of the new scientific -method, a degree of fury which was only rivalled by that of some of -the humanists themselves towards the translators from the Arabic. But -these are now dead fires. As the clinical and scientific methods of -teaching gained ground, textual studies receded in medical education, -as Hippocrates and Galen themselves would have wished them to recede.</p> - -<p>The texts of Hippocrates and Galen have now ceased to occupy a place in -any medical curriculum. Yet all who know these writings, know too, not -only that their spirit is still with us, but that the works themselves -form the background of modern practice, and that their very phraseology -is still in use at the bedside. Modern medicine may be truly described -as in essence a creation of the Greeks. To realize the nature of our -medical system, some knowledge of its Greek sources is essential. It -would indeed be a bad day for medicine if ever this debt to the Greeks -were forgotten, and the loss would be at least as much ethical as -intellectual. But there is happily no fear of this, for the figure and -spirit of Hippocrates are more real and living to-day than they have -been since the great collapse of the Greek scientific intellect in the -third and fourth centuries of the Christian era.</p> - -<p class="center space-above2">PRINTED IN ENGLAND<br />AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="f150 u"><b>Footnotes:</b></p> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> -The word <i>Biology</i> was introduced by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus -(1776-1837) in his <i>Biologie oder die Philosophie der lebenden Natur</i>, -6 vols., Göttingen, 1802-22, and was adopted by J.-B. de Lamarck -(1744-1829) in his <i>Hydrogéologie</i>, Paris, 1802. It is probable that -the first English use of the word in its modern sense is by Sir William -Lawrence (1783-1867) in his work <i>On the Physiology, Zoology, and -Natural History of Man</i>, London, 1819; there are earlier English uses -of the word, however, contrasted with <i>biography</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> -The remains of Alcmaeon are given in H. Diels’ <i>Die Fragmente der -Vorsokratiker</i>, Berlin, 1903, p. 103. Alcmaeon is considered in the -companion chapter on <i>Greek Medicine</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> -Especially the περὶ γυναικείης φύσιος, <i>On the nature of woman</i>, and -the περὶ γυναικείων, <i>On (the diseases of) women</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> -περὶ ἑβδομάδων. The Greek text is lost. We have, however, an early -and barbarous Latin translation, and there has recently been printed -an Arabic commentary. G. Bergsträsser, <i>Pseudogaleni in Hippocratis -de septimanis commentarium ab Hunaino Q. F. arabice versum</i>, Leipzig, 1914.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> -περὶ νούσων δ’.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> -περὶ καρδίης.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> -Especially in the περὶ γονῆς.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> -The three works περὶ γονῆς, περὶ φὐσιος παιδίον, περὶ νούσων δ’, <i>On -generation</i>, <i>on the nature of the embryo</i>, <i>on diseases, book IV</i>, -form really one treatise on generation.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> -περὶ φὐσιος παιδίον, <i>On the nature of the embryo</i>, § 13. The same -experience is described in the περὶ σαρκῶν, <i>On the muscles</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> -περὶ φὐσιος παιδίον, <i>On the nature of the embryo</i>, § 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> -περὶ φὐσιος παιδίον, <i>On the nature of the embryo</i>, § 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> -<i>Ibid</i>. § 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> -See a valuable note by D’Arcy W. Thompson prefixed to his translation -of the <i>Historia Animalium</i>, Oxford, 1910.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> -Pliny, <i>Naturalis historia</i>, viii. 17.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> -Athenaeus, <i>Deipnosophistae</i>, ix. 58.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> -Aelian, <i>Variae historiae</i>, iv. 19.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> -The statement of the relation of Callisthenes to Aristotle rests on -the somewhat unsatisfactory evidence of Simplicius (sixth century) -who states that Callisthenes sent Aristotle certain astronomical -observations from Babylon. Simplicius, <i>Commentarii</i> (Karsten), p. 226.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> -Plutarch, <i>Alexander</i>, lv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> -The subject is well discussed by W. Ogle in the introduction to his -<i>Aristotle on the Parts of Animals</i>, London, 1882.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> -The problem of genuineness is discussed in detail by R. Shute, <i>On the -history of the process by which the Aristotelian writings arrived at -their present form</i>, Oxford, 1888.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> -I have somewhat abbreviated this and the previous sentence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 5; 644ᵇ 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 1; 641ᵇ 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> -<i>Physics</i>, ii. 8, 3; 198ᵇ 6. This passage is considerably abbreviated -and slightly paraphrased.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 1; 641ᵅ 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, viii. 1; 588ᵇ 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, iv. 5; 681ᵅ 15.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, iv. 5; 681ᵅ 36.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, iv. 5; 681ᵅ 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, i. 21; 729ᵅ 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> -<i>De generations animalium</i>, i. 18; 725ᵅ 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, i. 19; 727ᵅ 31.</p></div> -<div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, i. 22; 730ᵇ 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, i. 22; 730ᵅ 34.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, vi. 3; 561ᵅ 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> -<i>Cor primum movens ultimum moriens.</i> This famous sentence is the sense -though not the phrasing of <i>De generatione animalium</i>, ii. 1 and 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, vi. 3; 561ᵅ 18.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, iii. 9; 758ᵅ 37.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, i. 5; 489ᵅ 35.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, vi. 10; 565ᵇ 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> -The history of this discovery is given by Charles Singer, <i>Studies in the -History and Method of Science</i>, vol. ii, Oxford, 1921, pp. 32 ff.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> -Johannes Müller, <i>Ueber den glatten Hai des Aristoteles</i>, Berlin, 1842.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> -<i>De generatione animalium</i>, ii. 1; 733ᵅ 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> -<i>Metaphysics</i>, i. 4. <i>De generatione et corruptione</i>, ii. 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> -<i>De anima</i>, ii. 1, ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> -<i>De anima</i>, ii. 2, ii; 413ᵅ 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> -The question of Aristotle’s meaning in connexion with this topic, -of primary importance for all thought, has a vast literature. An -authoritative work is R. D. Hicks, <i>Aristotle, De anima</i>, Cambridge, 1907.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 4; 644ᵅ 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 4; 644ᵅ 27.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, i. 4; 644ᵅ 16.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> -The classificatory system of Aristotle and its history are discussed in -great detail by J. B. Meyer, <i>Aristoteles’ Thierkunde: ein Beitrag zur -Geschichte der Zoologie, Physiologie und alten Philosophie</i>, Berlin, 1855.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> -The work by which Wotton is known is his <i>De differentiis animalium</i>, Paris, 1552.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> -There is a valuable chapter on the subject of the Aristotelian -classificatory system as based on the method of reproduction in W. -Ogle, <i>Aristotle on the Parts of Animals</i>, London, 1882.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> -The rediscovery and verification of this and other Aristotelian -observations is detailed by C. Singer, ‘Greek Biology and the Rise of -Modern Biology,’ <i>Studies in the History and Method of Science</i>, -vol. ii, Oxford, 1921.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, ii. 17; 507ᵅ 33.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, ii. 17; 507ᵇ 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, ii. 17; 507ᵇ 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, v. 6; 541ᵇ 1. The hectocotylization of the -cephalopod arm which is here recorded as an element in the reproductive -process of these animals is denied in the <i>De generatione animalium</i>, -i. 15; 720ᵇ 32, where we read that ‘the insertion of the arm of -the male into the funnel of the female ... is only for the sake of -attachment, and it is not an organ useful for generation, for it is -outside the passage in the male and indeed outside the body of the male -altogether.‘ Yet even here Aristotle knows of the physical relationship -of the arm. See note on this point in the translation of the passage by -A. Platt, Oxford, 1910.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> -J. B. Verany, <i>Mollusques méditerranéens</i>, Genoa, 1851.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> -E. Racovitza. <i>Archives de zoologie experimentale</i>, Paris, 1894.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> -The paragraphs concerning the fishing-frog and torpedo are made up of -sentences rearranged from the <i>De partibus animalium</i>, iv. 13; 696ᵅ 26, -and the <i>Historia animalium</i>, ix. 37; 620ᵇ 15.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, ii. 1; 646ᵅ 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> -<i>De partibus animalium</i>, ii. 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> -It is possible that Theophrastus derived the word pericarp from -Aristotle. Cp. <i>De anima</i>, ii. 1, 412ᵇ 2. In the passage τὸ φύλλον -περικαρπίου σκέπασμα, τὸ δὲ περικάρπιον καρποῦ, in the <i>De anima</i> the -word does not, however, seem to have the full technical force that -Theophrastus gives to it.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, i. 2, vi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> -<i>Ibid.</i> i. 1, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, ii. 1, i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, viii. 1, i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> -Nathaniel Highmore, <i>A History of Generation</i>, London, 1651.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> -Marcello Malpighi, <i>Anatome plantarum</i>, London, 1675.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> -Nehemiah Grew, <i>Anatomy of Vegetables begun</i>, London, 1672.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> -Pliny, <i>Naturalis historia</i>, xiii. 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> -The curious word ὀλυνθάζειν, here translated <i>to use the wild fig</i>, -is from ὄλυνθος, a kind of wild fig which seldom ripens. The special -meaning here given to the word is explained in another work of -Theophrastus, <i>De causis plantarum</i>, ii. 9, xv. After describing -caprification in figs, he says τὸ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν φοινίκων συμβαῖνον οὐ -ταὐτὸν μέν, ἔχει δέ τινα ὁμοιότητα τούτω δι’ ὁ καλοῦσιν ὀλυνθάζειν -αὐτούς. ‘The same thing is not done with dates, but something analogous -to it, whence this is called ὀλυνθάζειν’.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, ii. 8, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> -Herodotus i. 193.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, ii. 8, i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> -<i>Ibid.</i> ii. 8, ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, ii. 8, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> -<i>Ibid.</i> i. 1, ix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> -<i>Ibid.</i> iii. 18, x.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> -<i>De causis plantarum</i>, ii. 23.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> -<i>Historia plantarum</i>, i. 13, iii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> -See the companion chapter on <i>Greek Medicine</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> -The works of Crateuas have recently been printed by M. Wellmann as an -appendix to the text of Dioscorides, <i>De re medica</i>, 3 vols., Berlin, -1906-17. The source and fate of his plant drawings are discussed in the -same author’s <i>Krateuas</i>, Berlin, 1897.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> -The manuscript in question is Med. Graec. 1 at what was the Royal -Library at Vienna. It is known as the <i>Constantinopolitanus</i>. After the -war it was taken to St. Mark’s at Venice, but either has been or is -about to be restored to Vienna. A facsimile of this grand manuscript -was published by Sijthoff, Leyden, 1906.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> -The lady in question was Juliana Anicia, daughter of Anicius Olybrius, -Emperor of the West in 472, and his wife Placidia, daughter of -Valentinian III. Juliana was betrothed in 479 by the Eastern Emperor -Zeno to Theodoric the Ostrogoth, but was married, probably in 487 when -the manuscript was presented to her, to Areobindus, a high military -officer under the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> -The importance of this manuscript as well as the position of -Dioscorides as medical botanist is discussed by Charles Singer in an -article ‘Greek Biology and the Rise of Modern Biology’; <i>Studies in the -History and Method of Science</i>, vol. ii, Oxford, 1921.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> -This manuscript is at the University Library at Leyden, where it -is numbered Voss Q 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> -A good instance of Galen’s teleological point of view is afforded -by his classical description of <i>the hand</i> in the περὶ χρείας τῶν -ἐν ἀνθρώπου σώματι μορίων, <i>On the uses of the parts of the body of -man</i>, i. 1. This passage is available in English in a tract by Thomas -Bellott, London, 1840.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> -C. H. Haskins, ‘The reception of Arabic science in England,’ -<i>English Historical Review</i>, London, 1915, p. 56.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> -The latest and best work on the Aristotelian translations of -Scott is an inaugural dissertation by A. H. Querfeld, <i>Michael -Scottus und seine Schrift, De secretis naturae</i>, Leipzig, 1919.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> -J. G. Schneider, <i>Aristotelis de animalibus historiae</i>, -Leipzig, 1811, p. cxxvi. L. Dittmeyer, <i>Guilelmi Moerbekensis -translatio commentationis Aristotelicae de generatione animalium</i>, -Dillingen, 1915. L. Dittmeyer, <i>De animalibus historia</i>, Leipzig, 1907.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> - The subject of the Latin translations of Aristotle is -traversed by A. and C. Jourdain, <i>Recherches critiques sur l’âge des -traductions latines d’Aristote</i>, 2nd ed., Paris, 1843; M. Grabmann, -<i>Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristoteles-Übersetzungen des -XIII. Jahrhunderts</i>, Münster i/W., 1916; and F. Wüstenfeld, <i>Die -Übersetzungen arabischer Werke in das Lateinische seit dem XI. -Jahrhundert</i>, Göttingen, 1877.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> -The enormous <i>De Animalibus</i> of Albert of Cologne is now -available in an edition by H. Stadler, <i>Albertus Magnus De Animalibus -Libri XXVI nach der cölner Urschrift</i>, 2 vols., Münster i/W., 1916-21. -The quotation is translated from vol. i, pp. 465-6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> -Conrad’s work is conveniently edited by H. Schultz, <i>Das Buch der -Natur von Conrad von Megenberg, die erste Naturgeschichte in -deutscher Sprache, in Neu-Hochdeutsche Sprache bearbeitet</i>, Greifswald, -1897. Conrad’s work is based on that of Thomas of Cantimpré (1201-70).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> -Hieronimo Fabrizio of Acquapendente, <i>De formato foetu</i>, Padua, 1604.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> -William Harvey, <i>Exercitationes de generatione animalium</i>, London, 1651.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> -Karl Ernst von Baer, <i>Ueber die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere</i>, -Königsberg, 1828-37.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> -The works of Herophilus are lost. This fine passage has been preserved -for us by Sextus Empiricus, a third century physician, in his πρὸς -τοὺς μαθηματικοὺς ἀντιρῥητικοί, which is in essence an attack on all -positive philosophy. It is an entertaining fact that we should have to -go to such a work for remains of the greatest anatomist of antiquity. -The passage is in the section directed against ethical writers, xi. 50.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> -The word φυσικός, though it passed over into Latin (Cicero) with the -meaning <i>naturalist</i>, acquired the connotation of <i>sorcerer</i> among the -later Greek writers. Perhaps the word <i>physicianus</i> was introduced to -make a distinction from the charm-mongering <i>physicus</i>. In later Latin -<i>physicus</i> and <i>medicus</i> are almost always interchangeable.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> -This fragment has been published in vol. iii, part 1, of the -<i>Supplementum Aristotelicum</i> by H. Diels as <i>Anonymi Londinensis ex -Aristotelis Iatricis Menonis et Aliis Medicis Eclogae</i>, Berlin, 1893. -See also H. Bekh and F. Spät, <i>Anonymus Londinensis, Auszüge eines -Unbekannten aus Aristoteles-Menons Handbuch der Medizin</i>, Berlin, 1896.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> -It is tempting, also, to connect the Asclepian snake cult with the -prominence of the serpent in Minoan religion.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> -This word <i>pronoia</i>, as Galen explains (εἰς τὸ Ἱπποκράτους -προγνωστικόν, K. xviii, B. p. 10), is not used in the philosophic -sense, as when we ask whether the universe was made by chance or by -<i>pronoia</i>, nor is it used quite in the modern sense of <i>prognosis</i>, -though it includes that too. <i>Pronoia</i> in Hippocrates means knowing -things about a patient before you are told them. See E. T. Withington, -‘Some Greek medical terms with reference to Luke and Liddell and -Scott,’ <i>Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine</i> (<i>Section -of the History of Medicine</i>), xiii, p. 124, London, 1920.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> -<i>Prognostics</i> 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> -There is a discussion of the relation of the Asclepiadae to temple -practice in an article by E. T. Withington, ‘The Asclepiadae and -the Priest of Asclepius,’ in <i>Studies in the History and Method of -Science</i>, edited by Charles Singer, vol. ii, Oxford, 1921.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> -The works of Anaximenes are lost. This phrase of his, however, is -preserved by the later writer Aetios.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> -For the work of these physicians see especially M.Wellmann, -<i>Fragmentsammlung der griechischen Aerzte</i>, Bd. I, Berlin, 1901.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> -Galen, περὶ ἀνατομικῶν ἐγχειρήσεων, <i>On anatomical preparations</i>, -§ 1, K. II, p. 282.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> -<i>Historia animalium</i>, iii. 3, where it is ascribed to Polybus. The same -passage is, however, repeated twice in the Hippocratic writings, viz. -in the περὶ φύσιος ἀνθρώπου, <i>On the nature of man</i>, Littré, vi. 58, -and in the περὶ ὀστέων φύσιος, <i>On the nature of bones</i>, Littré, ix. 174.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> -Παραγγελίαι, § 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> -It must, however, be admitted that even in the Hippocratic collection -itself are cases of breach of the oath. Such, for instance, is the -induction of abortion related in περὶ φύσιος παιδίον, <i>On the nature of -the embryo</i>. There is evidence, however, that the author of this work -was not a medical practitioner.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> -Rome Urbinas 64, fo. 116.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> -Kühlewein, i. 79, regards this as an interpolated passage.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> -Littré, ii. 112; Kühlewein, i. 79. The texts vary: -Kühlewein is followed except in the last sentence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> -Περὶ τέχνες, § 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> -Περὶ νούσων α’, § 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> -A reference to dissection in the περὶ ἄρθρων, <i>On thejoints</i>, § 1, -appears of the present writer to be of Alexandrian date.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> -They are to be found as an Appendix to Books I and III of -the <i>Epidemics</i> and embedded in Book III.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> -John Cheyne (1777-1836) described this type of respiration in the -<i>Dublin Hospital Reports</i>, 1818, ii, p. 216. An extreme case of this -condition had been described by Cheyne’s namesake George Cheyne -(1671-1743) as the famous ‘Case of the Hon. Col. Townshend’ in his -<i>English Malady</i>, London, 1733. William Stokes (1804-78) published his -account of Cheyne-Stokes breathing in the <i>Dublin Quarterly Journal of -the Medical Sciences</i>, 1846, ii, p. 73.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> -The Epidaurian inscriptions are given by M. Fraenkel in the <i>Corpus -Inscriptionum Graecarum</i> IV, 951-6, and are discussed by Mary Hamilton -(Mrs. Guy Dickins), <i>Incubation</i>, St. Andrews, 1906, from whose -translation I have quoted. Further inscriptions are given by Cavvadias -in the <i>Archaiologike Ephemeris</i>, 1918, p. 155 (issued 1921).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> -We are almost told as much in the apocryphal <i>Gospel ofNicodemus</i>, § 1, -a work probably composed about the end of the fourth century.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> -Astley Paston Cooper, <i>Treatise on Dislocations and Fractures of the -Joints</i>, London, 1822, and <i>Observations on Fractures of the Neck and -the Thighbone</i>, &c., London, 1823.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> -This famous manuscript is known as Laurentian, Plutarch 74, 7, -and its figures have been reproduced by H. Schöne, <i>Apollonius -von Kitium</i>, Leipzig, 1896.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> -The first lines are the source of the famous lines in Goethe’s <i>Faust</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Ach Gott! die Kunst ist lang</span> -<span class="i0">Und kurz ist unser Leben,</span> -<span class="i0">Mir wird bei meinem kritischen Bestreben</span> -<span class="i0">Doch oft um Kopf und Busen bang.’</span> -</div></div></div></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> -The extreme of treatment refers in the original to the extreme -restriction of diet, ἐς ἀκριβείην, but the meaning of the Aphorism has -always been taken as more generalized.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> -The ancients knew almost nothing of infection as <i>applied specifically</i> -to disease. All early peoples—including Greeks and Romans—believed in -the transmission of qualities from object to object. Thus purity and -impurity and good and bad luck were infections, and diseases were held -to be infections in that sense. But there is little evidence in the -belief of the special infectivity of <i>disease as such</i> in antiquity. -Some few diseases are, however, unequivocally referred to as infectious -in a limited number of passages, e. g. ophthalmia, scabies, and -phthisis in the περὶ διαφορᾶς πυρετῶν, <i>On the differentiae of fevers</i>, -K. vii, p. 279. The references to infection in antiquity are detailed -by C. and D. Singer, ‘The scientific position of Girolamo Fracastoro’, -<i>Annals of Medical History</i>, vol. i, New York, 1917.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> -K. F. H. Marx, <i>Herophilus, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der -Medizin</i>, Karlsruhe, 1838.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> -Galen, περὶ ἀνατομικῶν ἐγχειρήσεων, <i>On anatomical preparations</i>, -ix. 5 (last sentence).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> -Galen, περὶ φλεβῶν καὶ ἀρτηριων ανατομῆς, <i>On the anatomy -of veins and arteries</i>, i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> -The quotation is from chapter xxxiii, line 44 of the <i>Anonymus -Londinensis</i>. H. Diels, <i>Anonymus Londinensis</i> in the <i>Supplementum -Aristotelicum</i>, vol. iii, pars 1, Berlin, 1893.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> -Sanctorio Santorio, <i>Oratio in archilyceo patavino anno 1612 habita; -de medicina statica aphorismi</i>. Venice, 1614.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> -This is the only passage of Hegetor’s writing that has survived. -It has been preserved in the work of Apollonius of Citium.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> -Leyden Voss 4ᵒ 9<sup>*</sup> of the sixth century is a fragment of this work.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> -V. Rose, <i>Sorani Ephesii vetus translatio Latina cum additis Graeci -textus reliquiis</i>, Leipzig, 1882; F. Weindler, <i>Geschichte der -gynäkologisch-anatomischen Abbildung</i>, Dresden, 1908.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> -The discovery and attribution of these figures is the work of K. -Sudhoff. A bibliography of his writings on the subject will be found in -a ‘Study in Early Renaissance Anatomy’ in C. Singer’s <i>Studies in the -History and Method of Science</i>, vol. i, Oxford, 1917.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> -First Latin edition Venice, 1552; first Greek edition Paris, 1554.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> -e. g. περὶ κράσεως καὶ δυνάμεως τῶν ἁπάντων φαρμάκων and the φάρμακα.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> -e. g. <i>De dynamidiis Galeni</i>, <i>Secreta Hippocratis</i> and many astrological tracts.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> -Dissection of animals was practised at Salerno as early as the eleventh century.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> -The sources of the anatomical knowledge of the Middle Ages are -discussed in detail in the following works: R. R. von Töply, <i>Studien -zur Geschichte der Anatomie im Mittelalter</i>, Vienna, 1898; K. -Sudhoff, <i>Tradition und Naturbeobachtung</i>, Leipzig, 1907; and also -numerous articles in the <i>Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und -Naturwissenschaften</i>; Charles Singer, ‘A Study in Early Renaissance -Anatomy’, in <i>Studies in the History and Method of Science</i>, vol. i, -Oxford, 1917.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="no-indent"> -<a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> -Benivieni’s notes were published posthumously. Some of the spurious -Greek works of the Hippocratic collection have also case notes.</p></div> -</div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="transnote bbox"> -<p class="f120 space-above1">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p class="indent">The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up - paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.</p> -<p class="indent">Typographical errors have been silently corrected.</p> -</div> - -<pre style='margin-top:6em'> -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREEK BIOLOGY AND GREEK MEDICINE *** - -This file should be named 63591-h.htm or 63591-h.zip - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/5/9/63591/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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