331 B.C- 619 A.D..: The School of Alexandria

Figure 1 --Alexander the Great had a vision of creating
a great city, and compiling all the science and wisdom of
the world in one place.  He died before he was 32, thus
not living to see his dream come true. 

The evolution of medicine was slow moving through most of history.  One of the reasons for this was that it was illegal to touch a human corpse except in preparing it for burial or cremation.  This was one of the main reasons Galen's ignorant explanations of the human body were worshiped as the medical Bible for over a thousand years after his death.  This created a roadblock for learning about diseases like asthma and allergies.

This roadblock made it so it was nearly impossible for there to be any major advancements in medicine.  If someone learned something about the human body by dissecting, it was usually done by stealing a corpse from a graveyard, or from a prison, and performed illegally.  And the information learned was kept secret from a monarchy that might kill you, or at least throw you in prison, for learning something that opposed the view of the establishment. So even if something was learned, it was probably never published.  And if it was published, it was so posthumously. 

Thankfully, however, there were a few places scattered around the world where it was legal to perform autopsies.  It was at these places where physicians would flock to obtain medical knowledge, and patients would flock to get the best treatment.  Among the first such place was the great city of Alexandria in Egypt. (1)

Alexander the Great is considered one of the greatest military leaders of all time.  Born in 356 B.C. in Macedonia, a city just north of Greece (Macedonia was not a city-state like Athens and Sparta).  He spent his childhood watching his father, Phillip II, build Greece into a great military power, winning battle after battle. (1)

When he was 13 Aristotle was hired to be his personal tutor.  Like other Greeks, he learned about science, medicine, and philosophy.  (1) Aristotle taught him to read and speak Greek, and taught him to respect philosophy the way the Greeks did.  He loved Greece, it's gods, it's history, and he dreamed of teaching it's culture to people all over the world. (2)

Figure 2 -- A rendering of Ancient Alexandria.  The lighthouse
you see depicted here was one of the seven wonders of the
ancient world.  This was one of the most beautiful cities ever.

His father, Phillip, conquered most of the Greek city-states, and when his father died, Alexander went on to conquer many nations, including Egypt.  As he did in other places he conquered, he championed Greek culture.

As noted by historian John Watson:  "The rapid extension of Grecian arms under Alexander the Great, lead to the diffusion of taste and learning among the surrounding nations.  Pergamus and the new capital of Egypt (Alexandria), became points of scientific attraction second only to Athens; and with the spread of general knowledge, the study of medicine extended to these cities."  (4, page 74)

The Asclepion of Pergamus was surrounded with architecturally amazing structures that "were occupied as places of public instruction and scientific intercourse. Here the orators, sophists, and philosophers of the city held their daily conferences, and sometimes amused themselves in expounding to the sick the vaticinations of the priests. As a school of medicine, the Asclepion of Pergamus enjoyed a long continued celebrity." (4, page 74)

Alexander died in 323 B.C. of a mysterious illness in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon.  He was only one month shy of his 32nd birthday.  At this time the Egyptian portion of Alexander's empire was given to Ptolomy Soter (367-282 B.C.), the brother of Alexander. 

Figure 3 -- The library of Alexandria was one of the largest libraries
in the ancient world.  Physicians came from all over the world
to study here.  Unfortunately it was destroyed by barbarians.
Can you just imagine if this was never destroyed?  Perhaps medical
knowledge would have been advanced faster, and there would be
better asthma and allergy knowledge today, and maybe even better
medicine, or a cure.  If I could go back in time, I'd want to go to the
City of Alexandria during its glory days and peruse ancient writings

Like Alexander, Ptolomy loved arts and sciences, and he formed the great library of Alexandria, and he placed Aristotle in charge of it.  (3, page 33) The flow of knowledge through this city was so abundant its great library "rendered Alexandria the great repository of science and wisdom." Some estimate that by the reign of Ptolomy Philadelphus (36-29 B.C.) the library had accumulated a collection "about two hundred thousand rolls of papyrus, equal to about ten thousand of our modern printed volumes." (4, page 79)

Ptolomy also started Museum of College of Philosophy, or the school of Alexandria, in 331 B.C., which was described best by John Watson in 1856:

It's chief apartment was a lecture room and place of general concourse.  Around the main building, on the outside, was a covered walk or portico.  And connected with it was an Exhedra, in which the philosophers sometimes sat in the open air... This noble institution was originally designed to serve in part as a school for the training of  youth in the higher walks of learning, and in part as a retreat within which men of genius and acquirements, free from the necessary and providing for their daily wants, might have leisure and opportunity, each in his own way, for extending the domain of science, or for increasing the enjoyments of improving the condition of their fellow beings. (4, pages 77-8)

Figure 4 -- Ptolomy

By the time of Ptolomy Philadelphus, the school "had already risen to the highest rank among the Greek schools. (4, page 79)

One of the main reasons for this was that for the first time in the ancient world, dissection was legal in Alexandria.  This was significant, because religion made even touching a human corpse illegal in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.  Now, for the first time in history, the human body could be studied, and it was.  In this way Aristotle was able to describe the insides of the human body by actual dissection. (3, page 33)  

The school was also a place for public lectures and readings, which were very important in Alexandria, as in all ancient civilizations.  This was because books were expensive and few could read.  Great minds would orally educate about the common wisdom of the day, and readers, or orators, would "familiarize" people with the writings of Homer and other great authors of the day. (4, page 82) Watson explained:

Among the Greeks this had been the common mode of enlightening the people, of amusing them, and of molding their opinion.  Most of the poetry, and much of the written history of the nation, were prepared for public recitation.

Placed in charge of medicine at the school were Erasistratus and Herophilus.

Erasistratus (304-250 B.C.) was from the Isle of Chios, and was the grandson of Aristotle.  He was the founder of the school of anatomy at the school of Alexandria, performing many autopsies.  Herophilus (335-280 B.C.) was a native of Chalcedon and was educated at the school of Cos. He also performed many autopsies at the school. (4, page 85) 


Figure 5 -- Aristotle

Along with Aristotle, they both made stunning observations from their inspections of the internals of the human body, and postulated various hypothesis based on these observations.  For instance, Erasistratus discovered that the trachea was a passageway for air (pneuma) to the lungs, and he discovered veins and arteries both originate from the heart.  Only he, like Aristotle,  believed the arteries were filled with air not blood, and hence the name 'arteries.'  And the passage of pneuma from the veins to arteries was the cause of disease(3, page 35-6, 4, page 86))

He disregarded the four humors of Hippocrates and the four elements of Empedocles, and instead postulated that fevers were caused by inflammation.  He was not a believer in purgatives and most medicine, and instead preferred a good diet and gymnastics.  Some believe he was the first to recommend exercise as a means to stay healthy and for healing.  (4, page 86)

Herophilus was among the "first of the Hippocratic school to distinguish himself as an atomist."  He was the first to use the pulse as an "index of varying conditions of health and disease."(4, page 84)

He properly attributed the pulsations of the arteries to the heart. 




Figure 6 -- Herophilus

Of interest is that Herophilus was charged with opening "the bodies of living criminals, to discover the secret springs of life."  (3, page 35)

Unlike Erasistratus, he was a believer in the hypothesis that imbalances of the four humors cause most diseases.  (4, page 85)

He revered Hippocrates to the point that "when obliged to contradict him he always avoided mentioning his name."   Also, unlike his counterpart, he placed a "high value on drugs, which he called, 'the hands of the gods,' and used them in great variety.  (5, page 62-3)

Erasistratus was an empiracist.  Herophilus was a rationalist. In this way, "the same rivalry which existed in Greece between Cos and Cnidos arose also between Alexandria and Pergamus, in which later place Galen was born, and Aesculapius was held in great respect as one of its most celebrated divinities."  (3, page 36-37)

Regardless, anyone who wanted to be a physician in the ancient world was eager to learn at the school of medicine in Alexandria, as "to have studied medicine at Alexandria, was everywhere considered a passport to the confidence and patronage of the public."  (4, page 92)

The school continued "its celebrity as a seat of learning and as a school of medicine, until it was taken by Saracens in 638 of the Christian era."  (3, page 36)

Figure 7 -- 1532 woodcut showing Herophilus (L) and Erasistratus (R)

Alexandria would fall in 619 A.D., and that ended whatever medical wisdom came out of it.  Many of it's wonders were destroyed by barbarians, including it amazing library.  As the library went up in flames, so to did all medical wisdom except for random scrolls scattered here and there.  (6, page 150-2) (7, page 28)

Until the  School of Salerno was established in the 10th century, there were no known autopsies performed, and medicine was left in limbo, or what historians like to refer to as the dark ages of medicine.  (6, page 150-2) (7, page 28)

References:

1. "Alexander the Great Alexander of Macedon Biography: King of Macedonia and Conqueror of the Persian," historyofmacedonia.org, http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/AlexandertheGreat.html
2. "Alexander the Great: Ancient Greece for kids," mrdonn.org, http://greece.mrdonn.org/alexander.html
3. Meryon, Edward, "History of Medicine: comprising a narrative of its progress from the earliest ages to the present and of the delusions incidental to its advance from empericism to the dignity of a science," volume I, London, 1861,
4. Watson, John, "The medical profession in ancient times," 1856, Baker and Godwin, New York
5. Withington, Edward Theodore, "Medical history from the earliest times,"
6. Garrison, Fielding Hudson, "An introduction to the history of medicine," 1922, Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Company
7. The John Hopkins Hospital bulleton," (volume XV 1904), "From the epoch of the Alexandria School (300 B.C.)"

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