Herophilus Of Chalcedon

, an ancient physician, flourished almost five hundred years before Christ. Cicero, Pliny, and Plutarch, mention him. Fallopius says, that he was the greater anatomist, and understood the sirucu.e of the human body better, and made more discoveries than Erasistratus his contemporary. He is also said to have discovered the lacteal vessels; and gave names to the various parts of the body, which they retain to this day. He was a great lover of botany, as wells physic and surgery and is said to have made some considerable improvement in each. Galen calls him a consummate physician, and a very great anatomist; and says, that these two great anatomists dissected many human bodies at Alexandria in Egypt; Tertullian says 600, and calls him “Herophilus ille Medicus aut Lanius;” as they are said to have dis^c ued condemned criminals alive. He is said also to have discovered the nerves, and their use. He makes three sorts of them; the first to convey sensation, the second to move the bones, and the third the muscles. He also mentions the optic nerves, the retina, and the tunica arachnoirles, and choroides the lacteals, mesenteric glands, and the glandulae prostatae and is the first that wrote any thing distinctly with exactness on the pulse. ¹