1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

134 5. Medicine and Other Empirical Sciences
of the nerves, the distinction between motor and sensory nerves, and the
practice of vivisection. The fragmentary nature of the extant testimonial
evidence makes it difficult to compare the contributions of the two scientists.
40
We know from a papyrus of the second century A.D. that Erasistratus
carried out at least one quantitative experiment in physiology. To prove
that animals give off matter in some invisible form, he locked an animal
in a container without food and compared its initial weight with the later
weight of its body together with its excreta. 41 Similar experiments were
conducted in the seventeenth century and are considered a sign of the
appearance of the modern experimental method.
Herophilus founded a school that remained active until the first century
A.D. According to Hyginus, one of his immediate disciples was Agnodice, page 176
the first woman who dared challenge the exclusion of her sex from the
medical profession. 42 In view of Agnodice’s professional success the ban
against female physicians was lifted — an example of the role played by
women in Hellenistic civilization. 43
One of the earliest and most significant representatives of the Herophilean
school was Andreas, personal physician to Ptolemy IV Philopator
and perhaps an immediate disciple of Herophilus. Like the latter, Andreas
had wide-ranging interests, which included for sure pharmacology,
surgery and physiology. A passage of Caelius Aurelianus on a case of pantophobia
suggests that he shared Herophilus’ interest in mental illness. 44
A machine built to order for Andreas to reduce dislocations of the limbs
remained famous in later centuries and attests to the interactions between
Alexandrian physicians and mechanicians. But already there is no clear
indication that Andreas engaged in what had been Herophilus’ main scientific
activity: anatomic dissection. It is certain that among later members
of the school, almost none practiced it. 45
An obvious symptom of decadence of the Herophilean school in later
centuries is the increasing importance given to the exegesis of Hippocratic
texts. Nonetheless throughout its existence the school produced scientists
who made important contributions to the development of knowledge, es-
40 For the fragments of Erasistratus, see [Erasistratus/Garofalo].
41 P. Londinensis 137; compare [Erasistratus/Garofalo], 86.
42 Hyginus, Fabulae, fabula 274 = [von Staden: H], text 8.
43 Among the Hellenistic painters mentioned by Pliny, for instance, there are five women (Pliny,
Natural history, XXXV). The late examples of Mary the Jewess (see page 142) and of Hypatia indicate
that scientific activities, too, were not out of the reach of women.
44 Caelius Aurelianus, Celeres vel acutae passiones, III, 12, 108. Further information about Andreas,
including a list of testimonia, can be found in [von Staden: H], pp. 472–477.
45 The only exception seems to have been Hegetor.
Revision: 1.9 Date: 2002/09/14 19:12:01