Erasistratus Of Ceos, (flourished c. 250 bc), Greek anatomist and physician in Alexandria, regarded by some as the founder of physiology.
Known especially for his studies of the circulatory and nervous systems, Erasistratus noted the difference between sensory and motor nerves, but thought that the nerves were hollow tubes containing fluid. He believed that air entered the lungs and heart and was carried through the body in the arteries, and that the veins carried blood from the heart to the various parts of the body. He correctly described the function of the epiglottis and the valves of the heart, including the tricuspid, which he named.
Erasistratus was the first major exponent of pneumatism, which was based on the premise that life is associated with a subtle vapour called the pneuma.
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history of medicine: Hellenistic and Roman medicine…first of its kind, and Erasistratus, regarded by some as the founder of physiology. Erasistratus noted the difference between sensory and motor nerves but thought that the nerves were hollow tubes containing fluid and that air entered the lungs and heart and was carried through the body in the arteries.…
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biology: Post-Grecian biological studiesErasistratus, a younger contemporary and reputed rival of Herophilus who also worked at the museum in Alexandria, studied the valves of the heart and the circulation of blood. Although he was wrong in supposing that blood flows from the veins into the arteries, he was…
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Hellenistic age: Science and medicine…anatomy, and the notable physiologist Erasistratus (fl. 3rd century
bce ) from Ceos, who realized that the heart is the motor for the circulatory system and deduced the existence of capillaries. Philinus (fl. 3rd centurybce ) from Cos founded the empirical school, trusting clinical observation rather than theory. In the 1st… -
autopsy: History of autopsy…the Alexandrian physicians Herophilus and Erasistratus, but it was the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum in the late 2nd century
ce who was the first to correlate the patient’s symptoms (complaints) and signs (what can be seen and felt) with what was found upon examining the “affected part of the… -
pneumatism…the Greek anatomist and physiologist Erasistratus about 300
bc , though the concept had been suggested earlier by other commentators. Unlike his contemporary, the Alexandrian anatomist Herophilus, who accepted the old theory of humoral pathology (i.e., that human temperament and features were determined by certain combinations of body fluids), Erasistratus held…
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