Erasistratus

• Erasistratus (304-250 BCE) was an Ancient Greek Physician who was the personal physician to Seleucas I Nicator of Syria (c.358-281 BCE), the founder of the Seleucid Empire.
• He made notable advances in the field of Medicine and his discoveries weren’t challenged by physicians in Rome until Galen (129-210 CE).

 Medical discoveries

1. After dissecting the valves of the heart, he concluded the heart functioned as a pump, and was not the centre of all sensations.
2. He distinguished between the veins and the arteries, but thought they carried air.
3. He described the difference between the motor and sensory nerves, and between the cerebrum and cerebellum in the brain.
4. He thought the nerves moved a liquid from the brain.

Medical Schools

• Erasistratus founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria, Egypt.
• A medical school was named after him in Smyrna, Ionia, that still functioned until the 1st century BCE, and produced numerous pupils and followers who maintained his cult.
• His discoveries weren’t challenged by physicians in Rome until Galen (129-210 CE)