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

~44 ERASISTRATU&S ERATOSTHENES.
the bra;in Itself and of the cerebellum. (De Appell. ERASTUS CEpaaTos), of Scepsis in Troas, is;
Part. &c. p. 65.) It is a remarkable instance at mentioned along with Coriscus, a native of the
once of blindness and presumption, to find this same place, among the disciples of Plato (Diog.
acute physiologist venturing to assert, that the Lairt. iii. 46); and the sixth among the letters
spleen (Galen, de Atra Bile, c. 7. vol. v. p. 131), attributed to Plato is addressed to those two Scepthe bile (id. de Facult. Natur. ii. 2, vol. ii. p. 78), sians. Strabo (xiii. p. 608) classes both men
and several other parts of the body (id. Comment. among the Socratic philosophers. (Ast, Platoa's
in ITippocr. " De Alim." iii. 14. vol. xv. p. 308), Leben u. Schrift. p. 519; C. F. Hermann, Gesch. u.
were entirely useless to animals. In the con- System d. Plat. Philos. i. pp. 425, 592, &c.) [L. S.]
troversy that was carried on among the ancients ERA'TIDAE ('Epa'ria&), an ancient illustrious
as to whether fluids when drunk passed through family in the island of Rhodes. The Eratidae of
the trachea into the lungs, or through the oesopha- Ialysus in Rhodes are described by Pindar (01.
gus into the stomach, Erasistratus maintained the vii. 20, &c.; comp. Bickh, Eaplicat. p. 165) as
latter opinion. (Plut. Sympos. vii. 1; Gell. descended from Tlepolemus and the Heracleidae.
xvii. 11, Macrob. Saturn. vii. 15.) He is also of whom a colony seems to have gone from Argos
supposed to have been the first person who to Rhodes. Damagetus and his son Diagoras beadded to the word d.prq'pla, which had hitherto longed to the family of the Eratidae. [DAMAGEdesignated the canal leading from the mouth to TUs, DIAGORAS.] [L. S.]
the lungs, the epithet TpaXEra, to distinguish it E'RATO ('EpaTcO), a nymph and the wife of
from the arteries, and hence to have been the ori- Areas, by whom she became the mother of Elatus,
ginator of the modern name trachea. He attributed Apheidas, and Azan. She was said to have been
the sensation of hunger to vacuity of the stomach, a prophetic priestess of the Arcadian Pan. (Panus.
and said that the Scythians were accustomed to viii. 27. ~ 9; ARCAS.) There are two other
tie a belt tightly round their middle, to enable mythical personages of this name, the one a Muse
them to abstain from food for a longer time and the other a Nereid. (Apollod. i. 3. ~ 1, 2.
without suffering inconvenience. (Gell. xvi. ~ 6; Hes. Theog. 247.) [L. S.]
3.) The 7rvsEi4a, or spiritual substance, played a ERATOSTHENES ('Epavrooesvrs). 1. One of
very important part both in his system of physio- the Thirty Tyrants. (Xen. Hell. ii. 3. ~ 2.) There
logy and pathology: he supposed it to enter the is an oration of Lysias against him (Or. 12), which
lungs by the trachea, thence to pass by the pulmo- was delivered soon after the expulsion of the Thirty
nary veins into the heart, and thence to be diffused and the return of Lysias from exile. (Clinton, F.
throughout the whole body by means of the arte- I. sub ann. B. c. 403.) 2. The person for whose
ries (Galen, de Di/er. Puls. iv. 2, vol. viii. p. 703, slaughter by Euphiletus, the first oration of Lysias
et alibi); that the use of respiration was to fill the is a defence. (Lys. p. 2, &c.) [P. S.]
arteries with air (id. de Usa Respir. c. 1. vol. iv. ERATO'STHENES ('Eparoe0&ePvs), of Cyrene,
p. 471); and that the pulsation of the arteries was was, according to Suidas, the son of Aglaus, accordcaused by the movements of the pneuma. He ing to others, the son of Ambrosius, and was born
accounted for diseases in the same way, and sup- B. c. 276. He was taught by Ariston of Chins, the
posed that as long as the pneuma continued to fill philosopher, Lysanias of Cyrene, the grammarian,
the arteries and the blood was confined to the and Callimachus, the poet. He left Athens at the
veins, the individual was in good health; but that invitation of Ptolemy Evergetes, who placed him
when the blood from some cause or other got forced over the library at Alexandria. Here he continued
into the arteries, inflammation and feverwas the till the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes. He died at
consequence. (Galen, de Venae Sect. adv. Erasistr. the age of eighty, about B. c. 19.6, of voluntary starc. 2. vol. xi. p. 153, &c.; Plut. de Philosoph. vation, having lost his sight, and being tired of life.
Plac. v. 29.) Of his mode of cure the most re- He was a man of veryextensive learning.: we shall
markable peculiarity was his aversion to blood- first speak of him as a geometer and astronomer.
letting and'purgative medicines: he seems to have It is supposed that Eratosthenes suggested to
relied chiefly on diet and regimen, bathing, exer- Ptolemy Evergetes the construction of the large
cise, fi'iction, and the most simple articles of the armillae or fixed circular instruments which were
vegetable kingdom. In surgery he was celebrated long in use at Alexandria: but only because it is
for the invention of a catheter that bore his name, difficult to imagine to whom else they are to be
and was of the shape of a Roman S. (Galen, Introd. assigned; for Ptolemy (the astronomer), though
c. 13. vol. xiv. p. 751.) Further information re- he mentions them, and incidentally their antiquity,
pecting his medical and anatomical opinions may be does not state to whom they were due. In these
found in Le Clerc, Hist. de la Med.; Haller, Biblioth. circles each degree was divided into six.parts. We
Anat. and Biblioths. Medic. Pract.; Sprengel, Hist. know of no observations of Eratosthenes in which
de la, Mid.; and also in the following works, they were probably employed, except those which
which the writer has never seen: Jo. Frid.. Henr. led him to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which he
Hieronymi Dissert. Inaug. exhibens Erasistrati must have made to be 230 51' 20"; for he states
Erasistrateorumque Historianm, Jen. 1790, 8vo.; the distance of the tropics to be eleven times the
F. H. Schwartz, — lHerophilus. und Erasistratus, eighty-third part of the circumference. This was
eine historische Paralleles Inaug. Abhandl., Wiirz- a good observation for the time: Ptolemy (the
burg, 1826, 8vo..; Jerem. Rud. Lichtenstadt, astronomer) was content with it, and, according to
Erasistratus als Vogiynbger von Broussais, in him, Hipparchus used no other. Of. his- measure
Hecker's Annal. der Heilkunde, 1830, xvii. 153. of the earth we shall presently speak. According
2. Erasistratus of Sicyon, must have lived in or to Nicomachus, he was the inventor of the Kco'before the first century after Christ, as:he is men- KvPov or CribrumArithmeticu2nm, as it has since been'
tioned by Asclepiades Pharmacion (apud Galen. called, being the well known method of detecting
de Comnos. Mledicacnt. sec. Locos, x. 3, vol. xiii. the prime numbers by writing down all odd nump. 356).' [W.A.G.] bers which do not end with 5, and striking out