Érasistrate of Céos (or Érasistrate de Julis ) (towards 310 - towards 250 av. J. - C.), known as " the infaillible" was a Médecin clinician and experimental and large a Greek Anatomiste , born in Ioulis, in of Céos. It was with Hérophile the founder of the École of Alexandria of medicine under the reign of the Ptolémées. He was the doctor of Séleucos Ier of Syria of which he managed to cure the son Antiochos. Its work and its discoveries make of him a precursor of the Neurophysiologie and Neurologie at the hellenistic period. He can be also regarded as the founder of the experimental Physiologie because he made many discoveries while carrying out true experiments on the animals.

Its discoveries on the Nervous system

In the field of the Neuroanatomie, it was one of the first with Hérophile to practice the Dissection S of human corpses. he thus managed to distinguish the principal structures of the Encéphale which are both hemispheres Cerveau and the Cervelet whose he described the role in driving coordination. He also showed that the Nerf S converge towards the central Nervous system. He highlighted the sensitive role and driving of the posterior and former roots of the rachidian nerves. Pioneer of the comparative method, it was the first to establish a bond between the degree of Gyrification of the Circonvolution S of the Cerveau (i.e., his degree of " plissement") different Species S animal and their degree from Intelligence.

Following Alcméon of Crotona and Anaxagore, it made brain the seat of the thought and mental faculties, contrary to Aristote which placed these functions in the Cœur.

Its discoveries on the circulatory system

It showed the central role of the Sang in the human body and it was close making the discovery of the Blood circulation by recognizing that the Cœur was in the center of the network of the Artère S and the Veine S. On the anatomical level, it gave the first descriptions of the Vena cava, the venous valvules and the pulmonary arteries and renal.

Érasistrate was the author of a concurrent theory to the theory of the Humeur S. He defended the idea thus that the system of the veins transported blood and not the Pneuma imagined by Hippocrates. This blood containing the vital spirit was conveyed since the heart to the brain where it was transformed into vital spirit, which was distributed in the body via the nerves (of which it showed that they not hollow but were made of a tubular solid structure, today identified like the nervous fibers). However, the role of the arteries in its theory remained to convey the air, which explained according to him the Pouls. He thus interpreted certain physiological disorders like an excess of blood in the arteries. This theory of the blood plethora was posed in opposition to the practice of the bled S defended by the other doctors of the time, of which Hérophile.

Biographical anecdote

The life of Érasistrate is little known. The majority of its writings are known to us by the comments that made of them its successors (in particular Galien who was his more famous critic). One seriously tells that it was called with the bedside of Antiochos, patient, by the father of this last, the Syrian king Séleucos Ier Nicator. After having observed that the Pouls of the patient accelerated and that its face reddened when his/her Stratonice mother-in-law, the wife of the king, entered the part, it would have deduced that the patient suffered in fact from an impossible love ¹. That thus makes of it for some a pioneer of the Psychothérapie.

External bonds

• Biography of Erasistrate on www.cosmovisions.com

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