1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

132 5. Medicine and Other Empirical Sciences
ered on the basis of other phenomena and not simply by observing
the parts. 32
The phenomena (“appearances”, “things seen”) that interest Herophilus
are therefore not just morphological data and they do not determine the
theory in a mechanistic way; they include things that we would wholeheartedly
call experimental data, as in this passage from Galen:
. . . [heart] rhythms, about which Herophilus discoursed at length,
surveying observations and experiments rather than teaching a rational
method. 33
For Galen, the experimental method contrasts with rationality, which
he evidently considers characteristic of purely deductive expositions. 34 It
is amusing to note that Polybius seems to criticize Herophilus for the opposite
reason:
The rational part [of medicine] arose especially in Alexandria, in the
hands of the so-called Herophileans and Callimacheans . . . but if
you lead [these rationalists] back to reality and put a patient in their
hands, you will find that they are as useless as he who has not read
a single medical treatise. 35
If Herophilus, in spite of the opinion expressed by Galen, is considered
a founder of “rational medicine” (which Polybius counterposes to “em- page 174
pirical medicine”), it is clear that the deductive aspect of the theory was
not absent from his work. Moreover Herophilus knew that theories do
not have an absolute truth value, as can be seen from other passages from
Galen:
Some say that there are no causes of anything; some, like the Empiricists,
are in doubt between yes and no; others yet, like Herophilus,
accept it hypothetically. 36
Although Herophilus casts doubt on every cause with many arguments
and strong, he himself is later found making use of them. 37
This last attitude seems contradictory to Galen, who, making a distinction
only between true and false, is unable to understand the Hellenistic
32
Galen, De foetuum formatione, 5 = [von Staden: H], text 57, 4–9.
33
Galen, De praesagitione ex pulsibus, II, 3 = [von Staden: H], text 53.
34
This opinion of the person who is generally considered the greatest ancient physician, together
with the fact that we have Galen’s works but none by Herophilus, helps explain why in the few
extant scientific works from Antiquity examples of use of the experimental method are rare.
35
Polybius, Historiae, XII, 25d = [von Staden: H], text 56.
36
Galen, De causis procatarcticis, XIII, 162 = [von Staden: H], text 58, 1–3. The words here translated
as “hypothetically” are “ex suppositione.”
37
Galen, De causis procatarcticis, XVI, 197 = [von Staden: H], text 59, 2–4.
Revision: 1.9 Date: 2002/09/14 19:12:01