But Plato’s knowledge of human anatomy and physiology was very crude and in some instances decidedly fanciful. In corroboration of this statement the following extract from the “Timaeus” may be quoted:—
And on this account, fearing to defile the Divine nature more than was absolutely necessary, they [the junior gods] lodged man’s mortal portion separately from the Divine, in a different receptacle of the body; forming the head and breast and placing the neck between, as an isthmus and limit to separate the two extremes.
In the breast, indeed, and what is called the thorax, they seated the mortal part of the soul. And as one part of it was naturally better, and another worse, they formed the cavity of the thorax into two divisions (resembling the separate dwellings of our men and women), placing the midriff as a partition between them. That part of the soul, therefore, which partakes of fortitude and spirit and loves contention they seated nearer the head between the midriff and the neck; as it is the business of the reason to unite with it in forcibly repressing the desires, whenever they will not obey the mandate and word issuing from the citadel above.
The heart, which is the head and principle of the veins as well as the fountain of the blood that impetuously circulates through all the members, they placed in a kind of sentry-house, that, in case of any outburst of anger, being informed by the reason of any evil committed in its members, owing either to some foreign cause, or else internal passions, it (the heart) might transmit through all its channels the threatenings and exhortations of reason, so as once more to reduce the body to perfect obedience, and so permit what is the best within us to maintain supreme command.
But as the gods foreknew, with respect to the palpitation of the heart under the dread of danger and the excitement of passion, that all such swellings of the inflamed spirit would be produced by fire, they formed the lungs to be a sort of protection thereto; first of all, soft and bloodless, and next internally provided with cavities perforated like a sponge, in order to cool the breath which they receive, and give the heart easy respiration and repose in its excessive heat. On this account, then, they led the channels of the windpipe into the lungs, which they placed like a soft cushion round the heart, in order that when anger rises in it to an extreme height it might fall on some yielding substance, and, so getting cool, yield cheerfully and with less trouble to the authority of reason.
(Plato’s “Timaeus,” translated by Henry Davis.)
Alcmaeon, Empedocles, Diogenes of Apollonia, Anaxagoras and Pausanias, whose names are mentioned above in the list of eminent men who flourished during the golden age of Greek history, are entitled to further consideration. Alcmaeon of Crotona was a contemporary and disciple of Pythagoras. He was specially devoted to the study of anatomy and physiology, and is credited with the distinction of having been the first person to dissect animals for the purpose of learning the formation of the different parts of their bodies. With the exception of a few fragments that are to be found scattered throughout ancient medical literature, Alcmaeon’s writings have all been lost. The discovery of the optic nerve is credited to him, and Neuburger states that he deserves still greater credit for having been the first to declare that the brain is the central organ of all intellectual activity.
Of all the disciples of Pythagoras, Empedocles attained the greatest celebrity. He flourished about 444 B. C., his residence being at Agrigentum, in Sicily. Much of his reputation appears to have been due to the mystery which surrounded many of his actions. He was even reputed to have brought again to life persons who were believed to be dead. His works were all in verse, but only fragments have come down to us. He placed the seat of hearing in the labyrinth of the temporal bone. His death occurred in Peloponnesus at the age of sixty, as the result of an accident.
Anaxagoras was born at Clazomenae, in Ionia, 500 B. C. He was the teacher of Euripides, the Athenian poet, and Pericles, the greatest of Athenian statesmen. He and his contemporary, Diogenes of Apollonia, in Crete, devoted a great deal of attention to the study of anatomy. They dissected animals and made some genuine discoveries; Anaxagoras noting the existence of the lateral ventricles of the brain, and Diogenes furnishing a description—very erroneous, it is true—of the vascular system of the body. Puschmann says that, according to Aristotle, the philosophers of that period considered the study of man and his diseases the most important one to which they could devote their time and thoughts. Many of them indeed had been educated as physicians, and not a few were actual practitioners of medicine.