Erasistratus

Physician

Born: c. 304 b. c.e.; lulis, Island of Ceos (now Kea), Greece Died: c. 250 b. c.e.; place unknown Category: Medicine

Life Erasistratus (ur-uh-SIHS-treht-uhs) studied medicine in Athens and Cnidus and practiced in Alexandria until his death. His writings, including works on fevers, hygiene, hemoptysis, abdominal pathology, and comparative anatomy, have not survived.

Best known for his anatomical and physiological research, he dissected both animals and people, drawing parallels from his finds. For example, from the cavities in the brains of men, stags, and hares, he inferred a connection with intelligence. His dissections of recently deceased humans led him to conclude that blood is carried by the veins while the arteries carry air or pneuma, tiny particles of air that account for muscular movements. He was attempting to explain physiology naturalistically.

He recognized the difference between motor and sensory nerves and that the heart is a pump. He also theorized that the veins and arteries were joined by capillary tubes too small to be observed (to explain how blood could appear in a severed artery). He discovered the function of the epiglottis in swallowing. Erasistratus considered plethora (hyperemia) as the primary cause of disease, which led him to prescribe dietary and exercise regimens to his patients.

Influence Erasistratus laid the foundations for the study of anatomy and physiology as well as anatomical investigations undertaken by later physicians such as Galen.

Further Reading

Bourgey, L. “Greek Medicine from the Beginnings to the End of the Classical Period.” In History of Science, edited by Renee Taton. Vol. 1. New York: Basic Books, 1963.

Eijk, Philip J. van der. Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity: Doctors and Philosophers on Nature, Soul, Health, and Disease. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Galen. On the Natural Faculties. 1916. Reprint. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Longrigg, James. Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Wright, John P., and Paul Potter. Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem from Antiquity to Enlightenment. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Terry R. Morris

See also: Medicine and Health; Science.