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29-417: De Medicina is a 1st-century medical treatise by Aulus Cornelius Celsus , a Roman encyclopedist and possibly (but not likely) a practicing physician . It is the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia; only small parts still survive from sections on agriculture , military science , oratory , jurisprudence and philosophy . De Medicina draws upon knowledge from ancient Greek works, and

58-460: A cataract , treatment for bladder stones , and the setting of fractures . Celsus wrote on the anatomy of the eye and was the first to call one of its layers the choroid . During the twentieth century, many historians claimed that Celsus believed that the crystalline lens is in the exact center of the eye. In fact, Celsus made no specific statement about the position of the crystalline lens, and his Graeco-Roman contemporaries did understand that

87-407: A water clock . Herophilos's work on blood and its movements led him to study and analyse the brain . He proposed that the brain housed the intellect rather than the heart. He was the first person to differentiate between the cerebrum and the cerebellum , and to place individual importance on each portion. He looked more in depth into the network of nerves located in the cranium . Herophilos

116-455: A mixture of air and water. Through dissections, Herophilus was able to deduce that veins carried only blood. After studying the flow of blood, he was able to differentiate between arteries and veins. He noticed that as blood flowed through arteries, they pulsed or rhythmically throbbed. He worked out standards for measuring a pulse and could use these standards to aid him in diagnosing sicknesses or diseases. To measure this pulse, he made use of

145-401: A state of health. On occasions, however, he boldly recommends the use of the scalpel ; his rules for blood letting and purgatives are laid down with detail and precision; and many of the rules he prescribes were not very different from those still in use at the beginning of the 19th century. His work contains detailed descriptions of the symptoms and different varieties of fever , and he

174-557: Is confirmed by his reference to the Greek physician Themison as being recently in his old age. It is not known with any certainty where he lived. He has been identified as the possible dedicator of a gravestone in Rome , but it has also been supposed that he lived in Narbonese Gaul , because he refers to a species of vine ( marcum ) which, according to Pliny , was native to that region. It

203-531: Is considered the best surviving treatise on Alexandrian medicine. It is also the first complete textbook on medicine to be printed, and has an "encyclopedic arrangement that follows the tripartite division of medicine at the time as established by Hippocrates and Asclepiades – diet, pharmacology , and surgery ." This work also covers the topics of disease and therapy. Sections detail the removal of missile weapons, stopping bleeding, preventing inflammation, diagnosis of internal maladies, removal of kidney stones ,

232-430: Is credited with recording the cardinal signs of inflammation known as " Celsus tetrad of inflammation ": calor (warmth), dolor (pain), tumor (swelling) and rubor (redness and hyperaemia ). He goes into great detail regarding the preparation of numerous ancient medicinal remedies including the preparation of opioids . In addition, he describes many 1st century Roman surgical procedures which included removal of

261-475: Is doubtful whether he practised medicine himself, and although Celsus seems to describe and recommend his own medical observations sanctioned by experience, Quintilian says that his volumes included all sorts of literary matters, and even agriculture and military tactics . Of the numerous volumes of his encyclopedia published before 47 CE, only one remains intact, his celebrated treatise On Medicine ( De Medicina ). "The work's encyclopedic arrangement follows

290-480: Is known about his early life other than he moved to Alexandria at a fairly young age to begin his schooling. As an adult Herophilos was a teacher, and an author of at least nine texts ranging from his book titled On Pulses , which explored the flow of blood from the heart through the arteries , to his book titled Midwifery , which discussed duration and phases of childbirth . In Alexandria, he practiced dissections , often publicly so that he could explain what he

319-447: The duodenum , which is part of the small intestine . Other areas of his anatomical study include the liver , the pancreas , and the alimentary tract, as well as the salivary glands and genitalia. Herophilos is credited with learning extensively about the physiology of the female reproductive system. In his book Midwifery , he discussed phases and duration of pregnancy as well as causes for difficult childbirth. The aim of this work

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348-581: The Augustan age. Also, Celsus wrote a technical work on agriculture, on which Columella partly based his De Re Rustica . Herophilos Herophilos ( / h ɪ ˈ r ɒ f ɪ l ə s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἡρόφιλος ; 335–280 BC), sometimes Latinised Herophilus , was a Greek physician regarded as one of the earliest anatomists . Born in Chalcedon , he spent the majority of his life in Alexandria . He

377-469: The amputation of limbs and so forth. The original work was published some time before 47 CE. It consisted of eight books in highly regarded Latin text. The subject matter is divided as follows: He classified mental disorders into: Phrenitis, delirium with fever; Melancholia, depression; one due to false images and disordered judgment, presumably schizophrenia; Delirium due to fear; Lethargus, coma; and Morbus comitialis, epilepsy. The term insania, insanity,

406-414: The case of Herophilos and Erasistratos , who he asserts practised vivisection . In the treatment of disease, Celsus's principal method was to observe and watch over the operations of Nature , and to regulate rather than oppose them, conceiving that fever consisted essentially in an effort of the body to throw off some morbid cause, and that, if not unduly interfered with, the process would terminate in

435-459: The cranium led Herophilos to describe the calamus scriptorius , which he believed was the seat of the human soul . Analysis of the nerves in the cranium allowed him to differentiate between nerves and blood vessels and to discover the differences between motor and sensory nerves. He believed that the sensory and motor nerves shot out from the brain and that the neural transmissions occurred by means of pneuma . Part of Herophilos's beliefs about

464-399: The eye surrounding the pupil ), the retina (containing the cells converting light into neural activity), and the choroid (a layer between the retina and the sclera comprising connective tissue and blood vessels nourishing the retina). Herophilos used the term retiform to describe the retina, from its resemblance to a casting net, giving the origin of the modern term. Further study of

493-419: The human body involved the pneuma, which he believed was a substance that flowed through the arteries along with the blood. To make this consistent with medical beliefs at the time, Herophilos stated that diseases occurred when an excess of one of the four humors impeded the pneuma from reaching the brain. Herophilos also introduced many other scientific terms used to this day to describe anatomical phenomena. He

522-458: The lens is located to the front. Hippocrates used the Greek word καρκίνος, karkínos 'crab, crayfish' to refer to malignant tumors as carcinomas. It was Celsus who translated the Greek term into the Latin cancer , also meaning 'crab'. The first printed edition of Celsus' work was published in 1478. His style has been much admired as being equal in purity and elegance to that of the best writers of

551-462: The time, except for Alexandria. Celsus in De Medicina and the church leader Tertullian state that he vivisected at least 600 live prisoners, though this has been contested as Herophilos appeared to have believed the arteries contained very little blood which he wouldn't have believed had he performed live dissections. After the death of Herophilos in 280 BC, his anatomical findings lived on in

580-415: The tripartite division of medicine at the time as established by Hippocrates and Asclepiades — diet, pharmacology , and surgery ." It is divided into eight books. In the "Prooemium" or introduction to De Medicina there is an early discussion of the relevance of theory to medical practice and the pros and cons of both animal experimentation and human experimentation . Celsus discusses, for example,

609-481: The works of other important physicians, notably Galen. Even though dissections were performed in the following centuries and medieval times, only a few insights were added. Dissecting with the purpose to gain knowledge about human anatomy started again in early modern times ( Vesalius ), more than 1600 years after Herophilos's death. Herophilos emphasised the use of the experimental method in medicine, for he considered it essential to found knowledge on empirical bases. He

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638-625: Was a forerunner of the Empiric school of medicine, founded by Herophilos's pupil Philinus of Cos , which combined Herophilos's empirical impulses with critical tools borrowed from Pyrrhonist philosophy. However, the Empirics found Herophilos wanting, mounting two chief attacks against him: Conventional medicine of the time revolved around the theory of the four humors in which an imbalance between bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood led to sickness or disease. Veins were believed to be filled with blood and

667-407: Was among the first to introduce the notion of conventional terminology, as opposed to use of "natural names", using terms he created to describe the objects of study, naming them for the first time. A confluence of sinuses in the skull was originally named torcular Herophili after him. Torcular is a Latin translation of Herophilos's label, ληνός - lenos , 'wine vat' or 'wine press'. He also named

696-521: Was doing to those who were fascinated. Erasistratus was his contemporary. Together, they worked at a medical school in Alexandria that is said to have drawn people from all over the ancient world due to Herophilos's fame. His works are lost but were much quoted by Galen in the second century AD. Herophilos was the first scientist to systematically perform scientific dissections of human cadavers. Dissections of human cadavers were banned in most places at

725-454: Was first used by him. The methods of treatment included bleeding, frightening the patient, emetics, enemas, total darkness, and decoctions of poppy or henbane, and pleasant ones such as music therapy , travel, sport, reading aloud, and massage. He was aware of the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. De Medicina was known during the Middle Ages up to the 9th or 10th centuries, but

754-479: Was later lost up until the 15th century. It was the first medical book to be printed, in Florence , 1478. Aulus Cornelius Celsus Nothing is known about the life of Celsus. Even his praenomen is uncertain; he has been called both Aurelius and Aulus, with the latter being more plausible. Some incidental expressions in his De Medicina suggest that he lived under the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius ; which

783-428: Was particularly interested in the eye. He described the optic nerve for seeing and the oculomotor nerve for eye movements. Through his dissection of the eye , he discovered its different sections and layers: the "skin" of the eyeball comprising the cornea (the clear part at the front of the eye through which light begins to be focussed into the eye) and sclera (the white of the eye), the iris (the colored part of

812-526: Was the first scientist to systematically perform scientific dissections of human cadavers. He recorded his findings in over nine works, which are now all lost. The early Christian author Tertullian states that Herophilos vivisected at least 600 live prisoners; however, this account has been disputed by many historians. He is often seen as the father of anatomy. Herophilos was born in Chalcedon in Asia Minor (now Kadıköy , Turkey), c. 335 BC. Not much

841-482: Was to help midwives and other doctors of the time more fully understand the process of procreation and pregnancy. He is also credited with the discovery of the ovum , and was the first to make a scientific description of what would later be called Skene's gland , for which in 2001 the term female prostate was accepted as a second term. Herophilos believed that exercise and a healthy diet were integral to an individual's bodily health. He once said that "when health

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