A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

IRASISTRATUS. ERASISTRATUS. 43.tr-us Poliorcetes, and she had already borne him nfimerous pupils and followers, and a medical school
one child. (Plut. Demetr. c. 38; Appian, de bearing his name continued to exist at Smyrna in
Rebus Syr. c. 59.) Antiochus fell violently in Ionia nearly till the time of Strabo, about the be-!
love with his mother-in-law, but did not disclose ginning of the Christian era. (Strab. xii. 8, sub fin.)
his passion, and chose rather to pine away in si- The following are the names of the most celebrated
lence. The physicians were quite unable to disco- physicians belonging to the sect founded by him:
ver the cause and nature of his disease, and Era- Apoemantes (Galen, de Venae Sect. adv. Erasistr,
sistratus himself was at a loss at first, till,- finding c. 2, vol. xi. p. 151), Apollonius Memphites, Apolnothing amiss about his body, he began to suspect lophanes (Cael. Aurel. de Morb. Acut. ii. 33, p. 150)
that it must be his mind which was diseased, and Artemidorus, Charidemus, Chrysippus, Heraclides,
that he might perhaps be in love. This conjecture Hermogenes, Hicesius, Martialis, Menodorus,
was confirmed when he observed his skin to be Ptolemaeus, Strato, Xenophon. He wrote several
hotter, his colour to be heightened, and his pulse works on anatomy, practical medicine, and pharquickened, whenever Stratonice came near him, macy, of which only the-titles remain, together
while none of these symptoms occurred on any with a great number of short fragments- preservother occasion; and accordingly he told Seleucus ed by Galen, Caelius- Aurelianus, and other anthat his son's disease was inlcurable, for that he cient writers: these, however, are sufficient to
was in love, and that it was impossible that his enable us to form a tolerably correct idea of his
passion could be gratified. The king wondered opinions both as a physician and an anatomist.
what the difficulty could be, and asked who the It is in the latter character that he is most celelady was. " My wife," replied Erasistratus; upon' brated, and perhaps there is no one of the ancient
which Seleucus began to persuade him to give her. physicians that did more to promote tiat branch
up to his son. The physician asked him if he of medical science. He appears to have been very
would do so himself if it were his wife that the near the discovery of the circulation of the blood,
prince was in love with.. The king protested that for in a passage preserved by Galen (de Usu Part.
he would most gladly; upon which Erasistratus vi. 12, vol. iii. p. 465) he expresses himself as
told him that it was indeed his own wife who had follows: —" The vein* arises from the part where
inspired his passion, and that he chose rather to the arteries, that are distributed to the whole body,
die than to disclose his secret. Seleucus was as have their origin, and penetrates to the sanguineous
good as his word, and not only gave up Stratonice, [or right] ventricle [of the heart]; and the artery
but also resigned to his son several provinces of [or pulnonary vein] arises from the part where the
his empire. This celebrated story is told with veins have their origin, and penetrates to the
more or less variation by many ancient authors, pneumatic [or left] ventricle of the heart." The
(Appian, de Rebus Sypr. c. 59-61; Galen, de Prae- description is not very clear, but seems to shew
not. ad Epig. c. 6. vol. xiv. p. 630; Julian, Miso- that he supposed the venous and arterial systems
pog. p. 347, ed. Spanheim; Lucian, de Syria Dea, to be more intimately connected than was generally
~~ 17, 18; Plin. H. N. xxix. 3; Plut. De- believed; which is confirmed by another passage
sietr. c. 38; Suidas, s. v.'Epaorof'p.; Jo. Tzetz. in which he is said to have differed from the other
Clhil. vii. Hist. 118; Valer. Max. v. 7),- and a ancient anatomists, who supposed the veins to arise
similar anecdote has been told of Hippocrates (So- from the liver, and the arteries from the heart, and
ranus, Vita Hippoor. in Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. p. to have contended that the heart was the origin
852), Galen (de Praenot. ad Epig. c. 6. vol. xiv. p. both of the veins and the arteries. (Galen, de IHip630), Avicenna (see Biogr. Dict. of the Usef. poer. et Plat. Decr. vi. 6, vol. v. p. 552.) With
Knowl. Soc.), and (if the names be not fictitious) these ideas, it can have been only his belief that
Panacius (Aristaen..Epist. i. 13) and Acestinus. the arteries contained air, and not blood, that bin(Heliod. Aethiop. iv. 7. p. 171.) If this is the dered his anticipating Harvey's celebrated discoanecdote referred to by Pliny (I. c.), as is pro- very. The tricuspid valves of the heart are genebably the case, Erasistratus is said to have re- rally said to have derived their name from Erasisceived one hundred talents for being the means tratus; but this appears to be an- oversight, as
of restoring the prince to health, which (supposing Galen attributes it not to him, but to one of his
the Attic standard to be meant, and to be equal to followers. (De Hippocr. et Plat. Deer. vi. 6, vol. v.
2431. 15s.) would amount to 24,3751.-one of the p. 548.) He appears to have paid particular attenlargest medical fees upon record. tion to the anatomy of the brain, and in a passage
Very little more is known of the personal his- out of one -of his works preserved by Galen (ibid.
tory of Erasistratus: he lived for some time at vii. 3, vol. v. p. 603) speaks as if he had himself disAlexandria, which was at that time beginning sected a human brain. Galen says (ibid. p. 602) that
to be a celebrated medical school, and gave up before Erasistratus had more closely examined into
practice in his old age, that he might pursue his the origin of the nerves,%he imagined that they arose
anatomical studies without interruption. (Galen, from the dura mater and not from the substance of
de Hippocr. et Plat. Deer. vii. 3, vol. v. p. 602.) the brain; and that it was not till he was advanced
He prosecuted his experiments and researches in life that he satisfied himself by actual inspection
in this branch of medical science with great that such was not the case. According to Rufus
success, and with such ardour that he is said to Ephesius, he divided the nerves into those of senhave dissected criminals alive. (Cels. de Medic. sation and those of motion, of which the former he
i. praef. p. 6.) - He appears to have died in Asia considered to be hollow and to arise from the memMinor, as Salidas mentions that lie was buried branes of the brain,- the latter from the substance of
by mount Mycale in Ionia. - The exact date'
of his death is not known, but he probably lived * He is speaking of the pulmonary artery,
to a good old age, as, according to Eusebius, he which received the name qb~Ae dap'qploJjs from
was alive B.C. 258, about forty years after the Herophilus. See Ruf. Ephes. de Appell. Part.
marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice. HIe had Co2p. Ilum. p. 42.