Medical Definition of Herophilus
1.
Herophilus of Chalcedon is the early "Father of Anatomy" and Galen remarked that he was the first to have dissected human and animal bodies.
Pliny states Herophilus was the first man to search for the cause of disease by human dissection, and goes on to say that Pharaoh Ptolemy witnessed some of these dissections. Celsus gave Herophilus credit for using prisoners condemned to die as subjects of study immediately previous to their last breath, by order of the sovereign.
He was the first to accurately differentiate nerves, tendons, and arteries from veins. He divided motor from sensory nerves. He taught that the brain was the seat of the intelligence. He recognised pulsations in arteries and counted them with the aid of a clepshydra or water-clock. Herophilus gave us the name of the first part of the small intestine, the duodenum, which means "12 fingers long." He also named the prostate gland which means "guard" of the bladder. His name is attached to the confluence of the venous sinuses in the occipital region of the cerebrum (the torcular of Herophili).
This keen anatomist described the liver, pancreas, salivary glands, chyliferous vessels, and genital organs from which he wrote at least nine treatises. Is there any wonder that he is referred to as the early Father of Anatomy !
Lived: 300-344 B.C.
(15 Nov 1997)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Herophilus
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