what was alcmaeon of croton important contribution to medicine

5th-century BC Greek dr. and philosopher

Alcmaeon of Croton
Fictionalized 1832 Statuary medal devoted to Alcmaeon of Croton
Era	Pre-Socratic philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Pythagoreanism
Chief interests	Natural philosophy
Notable ideas	Humorism
Influences Pythagoras
Influenced Calcidius Aristotle Favorinus Stobaeus Plutarch Galen

Alcmaeon of Croton (; Greek: Ἀλκμαίων ὁ Κροτωνιάτης, Alkmaiōn, gen.: Ἀλκμαίωνος; fl. fifth century BC) was an early on Greek medical author and philosopher-scientist.^[ane] He has been described equally i of the near eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity and he has also been referred to equally "a thinker of considerable originality and one of the greatest philosophers, naturalists, and neuroscientists of all fourth dimension."^[2] His piece of work in biology has been described as remarkable, and his originality made him likely a pioneer. Because of difficulties dating Alcmaeon's nascency, his importance has been neglected.^[iii]

Biography [edit]

Alcmaeon was built-in in Croton and was the son of Peirithous.^[iii] Alcmaeon is said past some to have been a student of Pythagoras, and he is believed to have been born c. 510 BC.^[4] Although he wrote primarily nigh medical topics, in that location is some proffer that he was a philosopher of science, not a physician. He besides skilful astrology and meteorology. Nothing more is known of the events of his life.^[5]

Piece of work [edit]

During Alcmaeon'due south time, the medical school in Magna Graecia was regarded equally the most famous; illnesses were studied in a scientific and experimental manner.^[2] Alcmaeon was considered past many an early pioneer and abet of anatomical dissection and was said to be the first to identify Eustachian tubes. His celebrated discoveries in the field of autopsy were noted in antiquity, but whether his noesis in this branch of science was derived from the dissection of animals or of man bodies is disputed.^[6] Calcidius, on whose authority the fact rests, just says "qui primus exsectionem aggredi est ausus," and the word exsectio would use equally well in either case;^[7] some modern scholars dubiety Calcidius' word entirely.^[8]

Alcmaeon also was the first to dwell on the internal causes of illnesses. It was he who offset suggested that health was a state of equilibrium between opposing humors and that illnesses were considering of issues in surroundings, nutrition and lifestyle. A book titled On Nature is attributed to him, though the original title may be different, as Alexandrian writers were known to have ascribed the title "On Nature" to a wide variety of works. According to Favorinus'south account, Alcmaeon has been the first who wrote such a treatise on natural philosophy ( φυσικὸν λόγον ),^{[ix] [ten]} notwithstanding this has been disputed, considering Anaximander wrote before Alcmaeon.^[3] Accounts which attribute an Alcmaeon of Croton to be the commencement to write animate being fables,^[11] may exist a reference to a poet with the same name.^[iii] He also wrote several other medical and philosophical works, of which nothing but the titles and a few fragments have been preserved by Stobaeus,^[12] Plutarch,^[thirteen] and Galen.^[14]

Surviving fragments attributed to Alcmaeon include, "The earth is the mother of plants and the sun their begetter", and may exist too, "Experience is the beginning of learning", attributed to an Spartan poet named Alcman.

The equality (isonomia) of the powers (moisture, dry out, cold, hot, bitter, sweet, etc.) maintains health but that monarchy amongst them produces disease.^[three]

Written report of the senses [edit]

Calcidius' commentary on Plato'south Timaeus praises Alcmaeon (as well as Callisthenes and Herophilus), about their piece of work on the nature of the eye. He mentions that Alcmaeon excised an animate being heart to study the optic nerve. However, there is no evidence that Alcmaeon himself dissected the middle or the skull. Based on this observation, and more than rudimentary, Alcmaeon described the senses, except for the touch sense. These observations contributed to the written report of medicine by establishing the connection between the encephalon and the sense organs, and outlined the paths of the optic fretfulness equally well every bit stating that the brain is the organ of the listen. Many scholars believe that Plato referred to Alcmaeon's work, when writing in Phaedo about the senses and how nosotros or animals recall. He also stated that the eye contains both burn and water, with vision occurring once something is seen and reflected past the gleaming and translucent role of the eye.^{[15] [3]}

Other studies [edit]

Alcmaeon said that sleep occurs by the withdrawal of blood, abroad from the surface of the body, to larger blood-flowing vessels, and that one becomes awake once again once the blood returns. And if the blood withdraws entirely, death occurs. Information technology has been suggested that Hippocratic authors, and Aristotle, adopted Alcmaeon'south views on sleep.^{[16] [17]} There are also accounts of him about embryology, how a child develops, and analogies with animals and plants well-nigh human physiology. Because of the little prove, there exists controversy to what extent Alcmaeon tin can be considered as a Presocratic cosmologist, or if at all.^[3]

Pythagorean [edit]

Although Alcmaeon is ofttimes described equally a pupil of Pythagoras, there are reasons to doubt whether he was a Pythagorean at all;^[18] his name seems to accept crept into lists of Pythagoreans given u.s.a. by after writers.^[xix] Aristotle mentions him every bit nearly contemporary with Pythagoras, simply distinguishes between the stoicheia ( στοιχεῖα ) of opposites, under which the Pythagoreans included all things;^[20] and the double principle of Alcmaeon, according to Aristotle, less extended, although he does not explain the precise divergence. Since 1950 the scholarly consensus holds that Alcmaeon of Croton is a figure contained of the Pythagoreans.^[3]

Other doctrines of Alcmaeon take been preserved. He said that the man soul was immortal and partook of the divine nature, because like the heavenly bodies information technology contained in itself a principle of motion.^{[21] [22]} The eclipse of the moon, which was likewise eternal, he supposed to arise from its shape, which he said was like a boat. All his doctrines which have come down to us relate to physics or medicine; and seem to accept arisen partly out of the speculations of the Ionian School, with which rather than the Pythagorean, Aristotle appears to connect Alcmaeon, partly from the traditional lore of the earliest medical science.^[19]

Encounter besides [edit]

• Galen of Pergamon – influenced by Alcmaeon of Croton
• Hippocrates

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Huffman, Carl (2021), "Alcmaeon", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summertime 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-08-xix
2. ^ ^{a b} Debernardi, Alberto; Sala, Elena; D'Aliberti, Giuseppe; Talamonti, Giuseppe; Franchini, Antonia Francesca; Collice, Massimo (February 2010). "Alcmaeon of Croton". Neurosurgery. 66 (2): 247–252, discussion 252. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000363193.24806.02. ISSN 1524-4040. PMID 20087125. S2CID 7737957.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Carl Huffman (2017). Alcmaeon. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford Academy.
4. ^ "There is disagreement well-nigh the date of his nascence: Aristotle says that "Alcmaeon of Croton lived when Pythagoras was old," [Metaphysics, 1, v, 30, 986a] but it would appear that the passage is interpolated. Diogenes Laertius states that he was a disciple of Pythagoras, [viii. 83] and this could have been possible if we assume that the latter died virtually 490 and that Alcmaeon was built-in almost 510 BC." Plinio Prioreschi, (1996), A History of Medicine: Greek medicine, folio 167.
5. ^ Greenhill, William Alexander (1867). "Alcmaeon (three)". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Dark-brown and Company. pp. 104–105. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11.
6. ^ Dict. of Ant., p. 756, a
7. ^ Calcidius, Comment. in Plat. "Tim." p. 368, ed. Fabr.
8. ^ Owen, Gwilym Ellis Lane (1996). "Alcmaeon (2)". In Hornblower, Simon (ed.). Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. ^ Laërtius 1925, § 83.
10. ^ Cloudless of Alexandria, Stromata i. p. 308
11. ^ fabulas, Isid. Orig. i. 39
12. ^ Stobaeus, Eclog. Phys.
13. ^ Plutarch, De Phys. Philos. Decr.
14. ^ Galen, Histor. Philosoph.
15. ^ Nuno Henrique Franco (2013). "Animal Experiments in Biomedical Enquiry: A Historical Perspective". Animals. 3 (1): 238–273. doi:10.3390/ani3010238. PMC4495509. PMID 26487317.
16. ^ Albert S. Lyons, M.D., F.A.C.S., R. Joseph Petrucelli, II, M.D., Medicine: An Illustrated History, pp. 187, 192
17. ^ A further account of his philosophical opinions may exist found in Gilles Ménage's Notes to Diogenes Laertius, viii. 83, p. 387; Le Clerc, Hist. de la Med.; Alphonsus Ciacconius ap. Fabric. Biblioth. Graec. vol. thirteen. p. 48, ed. vet.; Sprengel, Hist. de la Med. vol. i. p. 239; C. G. Kühn, De Philosoph. ante Hippocr. Medicinae Cultor. Lips. 1781, 4to., reprinted in Ackermann's Opusc. ad Histor. Medic. Pertinentia, Norimb. 1797, 8vo., and in Kühn's Opusc. Acad. Med. et Philol. Lips. 1827-8, 2 vols. 8vo.; Isensee, Gesch. der Medicin.
18. ^ Jowett, Benjamin (1867). "Alcmaeon (iii)". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Chocolate-brown and Visitor. p. 105. Archived from the original on 2008-05-21.
19. ^ ^{a b} Christian August Brandis, Geschichte der Philosophie vol. i. p. 507-508
20. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics A. 5
21. ^ Aristotle, de Anima, i. two, p. 405
22. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum i. xi

References [edit]

• Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "Pythagoreans: Alcmaeon". Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:viii. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Ii volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.

Attribution [edit]

•  This commodity incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Alcmaeon". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Further reading [edit]

• Andriopoulos, D.Z. (1990). "Alcmeon'southward and Hippocrates's Concept of Aetia". In Nicolacopoulos, Pantelis (ed.). Greek Studies in the Philosophy and History of Scientific discipline. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Codellas, P.Due south. (1931–1932). "Alcmaeon of Croton: His Life, Work, and Fragments". Proceedings of the Royal Guild of Medicine. 25 (7): 1041–1046. doi:10.1177/003591573202500759. PMC2183733. PMID 19988748.
• Foca, A. (2002). "The Origin of Experimental Medicine in the Schoolhouse of Alcmaeon from Kroton and the Diffusion of His Philosophy within the Mediterranean Expanse". Skepsis. xiii–14: 242–253.
• Guthrie, Westward.Thou.C (1962). A History of Greek Philosophy:The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Vol. 1. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-29420-seven.
• Jones, Westward.H.S. (1979). Philosophy and Medicine in Aboriginal Greece. New York: Arno Press. ISBN0-405-10606-8.
• Lloyd, Geoffrey (1975). "Alcmaeon and the Early History of Autopsy". Sudhoffs Archiv. 59 (2): 113–147. PMID 138982.
• Longrigg, James (1993). Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN0-415-02594-X.
• Mansfeld, Jaap (1975). "Alcmaeon: 'Physikos' or Physician?". In de Vogel, C.J.; Mansfeld, Jaap; de Rijk, Lambertus Marie (eds.). Kephalaion: Studies in Greek Philosophy and its Continuation Offered to Professor C. J. de Vogel. Assen: Van Gorcum.
• Sigerist, Henry East., ed. (1961). A History of Medicine:Early on Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Printing.

External links [edit]

• Huffman, Carl. "Alcmaeon". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Kudlien, Fridolf (2008) [1970–80]. "Alcameon of Crotona". Consummate Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com.
• Alcmaeon Fragments Read the philosophical fragments

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcmaeon_of_Croton

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