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EARLY MEDICAL SCHOOLS. Ill EARLY MEDICAL SCHOOLS. Ill The Scho ol of Alexandr ia By GEORGE E. GASK LONDON HE fifth century b .c . stands out Since the state of medicine and of as one of the great epochs of medical education is always intimately history, for in it was born the related to the social and economic con- idea of universal knowledge, ditions of the people it is essential to Tphilosophy, and science. know something of the civilisation of Medicine took a full share in this in- Alexandria. tellectual outburst leaving as witness The period under review may con- the monumental works to which the veniently be divided into two. The first name of Hippocrates is attached. In the or Ptolemaic period was that during third century b .c . the meteoric career which Egypt was ruled by the Ptole- of Alexander the Great astonished the mies, lasting from 323 b .c . till 30 b .c ., world. It looked for a time as if he when Cleopatra surrendered to Roman would dominate all mankind. Suddenly arms. Then Egypt became a province all was changed; Alexander died, his of the Roman Empire and remained so empire fell to pieces, and the western until 640 a .d . when it was conquered world was plunged into disaster. by the Arabs. Of the fragments into which the em- Of all the Ptolemies, and there were pire split, Egypt became the most stable. thirteen, the best and most important Here Alexander’s general. Ptolemy, es- were the two first, Ptolemy surnamed tablished himself, making Alexandria Soter and his son Philadelphus. Under his principal city and establishing there these enlightened men the School of a dynasty that endured for many centu- Alexandria was founded and put on ries. Situated conveniently on trade such a firm basis that it outlasted the routes, Alexandria soon gained a com- succeeding Ptolemies, the record of manding lead in the world of com- whose reigns is one largely of crime, merce. Wealth poured in and was used murder, and misrule. It survived even, by Ptolemy and his successors to de- though by a narrow margin, the perse- velop and beautify that city, the lines of cutions of the seventh Ptolemy, when which Alexander had traced with his many of the savants fled the country. own hands. In the course of time Alex- Ebe story of Cleopatra, the last of her andria became the first city in the Hel- line, is too well known to need repeti- lenistic world, while in the welter of tion. The great event of her reign that disorder little more is heard of the affected the School was the destruction medical schools of Cos and Cnidos. by lire of the great library. Thus the center of scientific interests Under the Romans the work in the shifts to Egypt. Museum continued, though now the president was nominated by Caesar in- reputation were invited to take up their stead of the Pharaoh. The School lacked residence in Alexandria. its former lustre but survived until the Among the famous men who accepted city itself was destroyed by the Arabs the invitation may be mentioned Eu- in the seventh century. clid, the mathematician; Apelles and That was the end of the School of Antiphilus, the painters; Philetas, the Alexandria which had lived for nine poet; Hecateus, the historian; Dio- centuries and which, with all its fail- dorus, the rhetorician; Zenotus, the ings, preserved much of the culture of grammarian; and Herophilus, the Greece and had spread the light of anatomist. This was a good start. The learning in the new countries which new school, naturally, was modelled on were rising. the lines of the Lyceum and the Acad- emy of Athens which were already Fou nd ati on of the Scho ol of famous. But Ptolemy’s school gave Alexandr ia something that had never been pro- Ptolemy had to fight hard to establish vided before, namely residential quar- his sovereignty in Egypt but once firmly ters for the professors with endowment established on the throne his mind for their subsistence and a library of turned to the encouragement of learn- magnificent proportions for their use. ing. Brought up in the court of Mace- In effect Ptolemy laid the foundation donia, the learning of Greece had the of a royal university, the germ from same fascination for him as it had for which at a later date developed the uni- his sovereigns, Philip and Alexander. versities of Europe. The culture of Athens, however, was One is sorry not to be able to give de- on the decline and its schools languish- tails of the early foundation of the in- ing when Ptolemy determined to make stitution, but they do not exist and we Alexandria a great centre of learning. are forced to rely on the scanty record The time was ripe and the opportunity given by Strabo1 in his Geography. This favourable. Athens had expelled one is what he says: of the most prominent of her citizens, The Museum is part of the palaces. It Demetrius Phalereus (c. 354-283 b .c .). has a public walk and a place furnished He was just the man Ptolemy wanted to with seats, and a large hall, in which the aid him in his plans, for he was familiar men of learning, who belong to the Mu- with the learned world of Athens. De- seum, take their common meal. Phis com- metrius was an intimate friend of The- munity possesses also property in common; ophrastus, who succeeded Aristotle as and a priest, formerly appointed by the president of the Lyceum and was the kings, but at present by Caesar, presides first of the Peripatetics. No doubt he over the Museum.1 must have frequented the Temple of The Museu m the Muses and walked in the Grove philosophising with the successors of In order to understand what was Plato. None could have been found bet- meant by the term museum it is neces- ter fitted to advise Ptolemy in his sary to rid one’s mind of our present scheme. The brilliant inspiration was conception of a museum, that is, a carried into effect. Ptolemy established building for storing and exhibiting col- in Alexandria his Museum and Library lections. The Greek Museum was origi- and a number of scholars of established nally the Temple of the Muses, the sis- ter-goddesses, the inspirers of learning tony to Cleopatra to make up for the and of the arts. Such was the Museum loss of the main library. This library in Athens to which Theophrastus refers was finally burnt by order of the Caliph in his will.2 Later a museum became a Omar in 640 a .d . place dedicated to the study of the works From this description of the build- of the Muses, and it is in this light that ings we may turn to the activities of the we should regard the new foundation of School. These may be divided roughly Alexandria. into four sections, poetry, mathematics, I he layout had many points of simi- astronomy and medicine. larity with the schools of Athens. It had its promenades, groves and seats. But The School of Medic ine now appeared for the first time the new A word of warning is necessary at the feature, the large dining hall where outset lest one gets a wrong idea of the members could take their meals to- word school. When one speaks of the gether, as in a college hall in one of our School of Medicine or of the School of own universities. At the head of the Alexandria it is not right to think of Museum was a priest nominated by the them as we do when speaking, say, of the king, and, in appointing a member of School of Edinburgh, of Bart's or of the priesthood as president, Ptolemy Guy’s with their class rooms, dissecting was perhaps making concessions to rooms, and laboratories. Those had not Egyptian tradition for there already ex- appeared yet. What is meant is the de- isted centres of learning at Thebes, velopment of learning, with all the Memphis and Heliopolis. ideas and theories which sprang from it. Ptolemy was fortunate in securing The Libr ary two first class physicians to commence A most important adjunct for the his medical school. These were He- scholars working in the Museum was rophilus and Erasistratus, both of the Library which became world fa- whom made outstanding advances in mous and in fact more famous than anatomy and physiology and quickly the Museum. put the School on a firm basis. The two foundations were close to- Herophilus was the elder of the two. gether, connected with the theatre and He was a pupil of that able anatomist the palaces by long colonnades adorned and surgeon, Praxagoras of Cos, and with obelisks and sphinxes taken from no doubt it was his influence that led the Pharaonic cities.3 The collection of Herophilus to study anatomy. Beyond books was begun by Ptolemy 1 and his scientific ability practically nothing added to by his successors, for even the is known of the personality of Herophi- bad Ptolemies were patrons of litera- lus except one anecdote, which shows ture, until it reached the number of that he had a sense of humour. One of 400,000 volumes or perhaps even 700,- his fellow workers in the Museum, Dio- 000. This was the library which was dorus Cronos, had the misfortune to destroyed by fire when Julius Caesar dislocate his shoulder. Now Diodorus was besieged in Alexandria. There was used to deny the existence of motion, also a second library housed in the saying: “If matter moves, it is either in Serapeum.
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