he sway of the Romans.
Medical practice became so flourishing at Alexandria that three great
specialities were established, namely, Surgery, Pharmacy, and Dietetics,
and a great variety of operations were performed. Lithotomy was much
practised by specialists. A foul murder was perpetrated by lithotomists
at the instigation of Diodotus, the guardian of Antiochus, son of
Alexander, King of Syria (150 B.C.), young Antiochus, at the age of 10,
being done to death under the pretence that he had a stone in his
bladder.

About 150 B.C. a sect called the Essenes was established for the study
of curative and poisonous substances. The members were not all
physicians, by any means, for one of the chief was King Mithridates, who
invented the remedy known as mithridaticum. This celebrated nostrum of
antiquity is said to have been a confection of twenty leaves of rue, a
few grains of salt, two walnuts, and two figs, intended to be taken
every morning and followed by a draught of wine.

Two famous physicians and anatomists, _Herophilus_ (335-280 B.C.) and
_Erasistratus_ (280 B.C.) took part in the medical teaching at
Alexandria in the early days of that seat of learning. It is recorded
that they did not confine their investigations to the dissection of the
dead, but also vivisected criminals. _Cleombrotus_, another physician
at this school, was sent for to attend King Antiochus, and was rewarded
with a hundred talents, equal to about L15,000 sterling.

There were several physicians of the name of _Chrysippos_ connected with
the Alexandrian School. One was physician to Ptolemy Soter, the King of
Egypt, and tutor to Erasistratus. This Chrysippos introduced the
practice of emptying a limb of blood before amputation, according to the
recent method of Esmarch, and is said to have employed vapour baths in
the treatment of dropsy.

In Alexandria, anatomy was properly studied.[8]

_Herophilus_ made many anatomical discoveries, and some of the names he
gave to parts of the body are now in use, for instance, torcular
Herophili, calamus scriptorius, and duodenum. He described the
connection between the nerves and the brain, and the various parts of
the brain, and recognized the essential difference between motor and
sensory nerves, although he thought the former arose in the membranes
and the latter in the substance of the brain. He believed that the
fourth ventricle was the seat of the soul. He attributed to the heart
the pulsations of t