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IN ALEXANDRIA. gl
Alexandria flourished and prospered, protection was
make the 1° ? ^ " "^ ^ Were SOOn *>
make themselves homeg ^
withT°p m SyHa and ° f thG ATTALI » P -gamos v ed
rls
P LEM A IES in their guardianship of Intellectual
treasures. The ATTALI founded both elementary schools*
a'nd T EK ^ '" '^ lGarned Hke th0Se in Alexandria
and their library was, after that of the Museum and that of
the Serapeum, the most celebrated of ancient times The
opposition which they offered to the PTOLEMIES 'in the
purchase of manuscripts, led to an order forbidding the
exportation of papyrus leaves from Egypt which was the
indirect cause of the discovery of a durable material for
writing upon, namely parchment, the name of which comes
from Pergamos. The schools, thus founded, attained a high
, position and attracted men of learning who distinguished
themselves in textual criticism, mathematics, and especially
in medicine.. Pergamos for a long time enjoyed a prominent
position as a centre of medical training; and
, GALEN one of the greatest doctors and investigators of any
period, received his first medical instruction there.
The last King of Pergamos, the weak-minded ATTALUS III
has acquired a bad reputation in the history of medical
science. In continual fear of being poisoned by his
enemies, he desired that effectual antidotes against poisons
should be discovered and caused for this purpose experiments
to be made upon criminals and other persons of
whom he wished to be quit. "With his own hand he
•cultivated poisonous plants, henbane, hellebore, hemlock,
aconite and doryknion in the royal gardens and collected
their juices and fruits in order to study their properties " f
The murderous MITHRIDATES of Pontos, another of these
royal poison-mixers devoted himself to a similar pastimehe
daily took some poison in order to accustom himself
gradually to the use of the same. These experiments
* TH. MOMMSEN : Rom. Geschichte, Bd. v, S. 334.
t PLUTARCH : Vita Demetrii, C. 20.
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