Herophilus of Alexandria (325-255 B. C.)

Abstract

Herophilus (325-255 B. C.) is one of the group that has been called the great Greek physicians. All members of this group lived during the last 400 years of Greek intellectual leadership and the first 200 years of Roman domination. Herophilus was born in the Greek town of Chalcedon. He received his medical training under Praxagoras, a famous physician and anatomist who taught at the Hippocratean medical school on the island of Cos (Kos). He moved to Alexandria, Egypt, as a young man and lived there for the rest of his life. With his younger contemporary, Erasistratus, he did the first ever scientific human cadaveric dissections for a short period of no more than 30-40 years. Human dissection then was forbidden and was not allowed again for 1800 years. It seems that only these two physicians ever performed human dissection until the Renaissance, around 1530 A. D. The anatomic and physiologic discoveries of Herophilus were phenomenal. As Hippocrates is called the Father of Medicine, Herophilus is called the Father of Anatomy. Most would argue that he was the greatest anatomist of antiquity and perhaps of all time. The only person who might challenge him in this assessment is Vesalius, who worked during the 16th century A. D.

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