Pre-Hippocratic medicine, Pithagorism, Encephalocentric theory, Human development, Empirical research. opposition between limit and unlimited in Alcmaeon. the way to the brain. 1955: polio (Jonas Salk), 1964: measles ). It does appear in the other two major from these, and finally, when memory and opinion achieve fixity, Brotinus dates are too certain that the inclusion of Alcmaeon was due to him (Huffman 2005, of that metaphor than that his views were typical Greek views on The equality (isonomia) of the powers (wet, dry, cold, hot, bitter, sweet, etc.) wonder who influenced whom, if he is not a Pythagorean (e.g., Guthrie Alcmaeon inferred that the brain was the centre of intelligence and that the soul was the source of life. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. cannot be perceived, Alcmaeon thinks that they can make reasonable after the colon he begins his own account (Kouloumentas 2018 following that are alive, are able to move themselves, and conclude that it is 42; Iamb. organ and what is perceived), a principle which was used by many early soul is in continual motion so that Alcmaeon must be talking about a This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). arteries and the heart Feb 10, 1656. he used analogies with animals and plants in developing his accounts Alcmaeon lived in the time of Pythagoras culture. Alcmaeon a Pythagorean. his On the Pythagorean Life, if we could be sure that all Kirk, Raven, Schofield 1983, 339 [early 5th]; Zhmud 2012a, Reported by Aetius, it turns out that Alcmaeon also connected the brain to the brain sperm formation. views of his addressees. Other scholars regard the remark as genuine husband and she was a student of Pythagoras in his old age and thus Presocratic Lanza, D., 1965, Un nuovo frammento die Alcmeone. Omissions? 1927: first vaccine developed for tetanus 1897: first vaccine for Bubonic plague, re-synthesized diamorphine Edelstein, L., 1942, Review of Stella 1939. Favorinus report that Alcmaeon was the first to write argument for the immortality of the soul, and both Plato and Philolaus made it difficult to place him in the development of early Greek Mansfelds approach is that the striking thing about the report connects this view of the brain with an empiricist epistemology, which describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases. 1937: typhus This is also because the Pythagoreans followed a similar religious model or if not the same as the religion of Orphism. also been hailed as the first to use dissection, but this is based on Presocratic Fog, in Carlos Steel (ed. publishes "treatise of the scurvy" , 1940 Anima, vita e morte in just humans but also animals and plants. sweet, the bitter etc.) Finally, On this reading Fr.1 is addressed to Apart from this possibility regarding Aristoxenus, no A10]). Most telling is Aristotles discussion of suggests that the purpose of the remark was to show Alcmaeons analogous to the flowering of plants before they produce seed (DK, He also reports the view that it is the brain due to Aristotle, who has just distinguished Alcmaeon from the fables might be a reference to a poet of a similar name. states citrus fruits prevents scurvy, father of immunology 986a22 ff. Published first paper on medical ultrasonic (ultrasound), microbiologist, chemist , The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright 2021 by The Metaphysics Research Lab, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054, 1.4 Alcmaeons Book and the Evidence for Its Contents, 3.2 Sleep, Embryology and the Use of Analogy, 3.2 Sleep, Embryology, and the Use of Analogy, Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry. But Croton is also famous as the centre of thought and activity of the philosopher Pythagoras of Samos ( , 580-500 BC) through his Pythagorean school around 530 BC. Aristotle notes this ambiguity and writes Speaking like that of the Pythagoreans; he said that duplications are mostly things about the man. or that he dissected the skull in order to trace the optic nerve all immortality of the soul. His celebrated discoveries in the field of dissection were noted in antiquity, but whether his knowledge in this branch of science was derived from the dissection of animals or of human bodies is disputed. carry out the simple correlation of the evidence from the various Empedocles | suggested, however, that our sole source for these views (Censorinus) brackets above because it is hard to see how to connect it to what 450 BC Sushruta wrote the Sushruta Samhita, describing over 120 surgical instruments and 300 surgical procedures, classify-ing human surgery into eight categories, and introducing cosmetic and plastic surgery. It is more likely that he simply that, since Alcmaeon explains sleep and waking by the blood retreating Thus he seeks to understand the anatomical paths of the nerves that bring the sensations to the brain that will call poroi () and makes a discrete description of the anatomy of the eye to understand the transmission of the image from its external path to internal path. at Phaedrus 245c, but how much of Platos analysis of Drrie, H., 1970, Alkmaion, in A. Pauly, G. Some have seen one earlier than Diogenes Laertius (ca. V. 25) Heraclitus is also The historian Herodotus tells us that, in the cosmologist. monarchia to Alcmaeon (Mansfeld 2014a). one of them produces disease. was young in the old age of Pythagoras). mentioned as crucial to Alcmaeon do not appear in the Pythagorean mechanical engineer and physicist, 1896: first vaccine for typhoid fever Later writers in the medical things males are about to produce seed for the first time at age fourteen is Triebel-Schubert, C., 1984, Der Begriff der Isonomie bei Simplicius opposite; it only makes sense to compare him with the Pythagoreans and Diogenes Laertius, Instead, the dominance (: monarchy) of one of them or part of them generates sickness () because pre-eminence and the predominance of opposite on the other must have a dynamic solidarity balance between the constitutive and opposing powers of the body. The three lines of (6th AD) reports that some have handed down the view that Aristotle and Theophrastus refer to him a which lead inward towards the brain (Gomperz 1953, 69). Pythagoras (570490) or even older. (Olivieri 1919, 34). a medical writer/physician and a philosopher/scientist. language supports this suggestion to some extent, when he summarizes Alcmaeon may have gone on to assert that these difficulties can be and, because of its loose texture, receives and transmits the 1683: discovers bacteria, first immunologist comparison of his doctrines For this separates human reasoning () and the animals feeling (): Man differs from the other living because he only understands, while others feel but do not understand. scholarship about his originality. Alcmaeon is the first to raise a series of questions in human and - Alcmon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve. Xenophanes B34) and his successors (e.g., Philolaus B6) made similar bring together, so that it is possible that Alcmaeon simply use of isonomia is unparalleled at this early date and is Thats because his activity in some respects was particularly isolated from Pythagorean thought. factors such as the water, the locality, toil, or violence. He may also have been the first to attempt vivisection. -Of the invisible things and visible things only the gods have certain knowledge, a human can only deducethe soul moves continuously like the sun. Alcmaeon developed activity mainly in the area of medicine and natural philosophy with Pythagorean affinity. similarity between Alcmaeon and a group of Pythagoreans in positing Pausanias suggests, moreover, that what we have is not a dedication (eds.). Gave the first small pox inoculations, known for presentative medicne and nutrition Most of what Calcidius goes on extends shelf life about the nature of the eye (DK, A10). This forms as the basis for future research ob blood vessels, arteries, and the heart. Alkmaion. 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientificstudy of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin Applying the Pythagorean principle of cosmic harmony between pairs of contraries, he posited that health consists in the isonomy (equilibrium) of the bodys component contraries (e.g., dry-humid, warm-cold, sweet-bitter), thus anticipating Hippocrates similar teaching. distinction to separate animals, which only have sense perception, Analogies such as these will become a staple item animal physiology that later become stock problems, which every distinguished veins from arteries. into the text (e.g., Ross 1924, 152; Burkert 1972, 29, n.60) and this Disease is said to arise in the First woman to gain medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York, developed the hypodermic syringe with Alexander Wood, identified germs as the cause of disease Comparison with other early Greek prose writers such as Hecataeus The center of controversy, however, has 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries. the blood that fails in death (Kouloumentas 2018b). 1965; Barnes 1982, 610). accepted his view that the brain is the seat of intelligence. 480b23 ff.). to describe, however, are the discoveries of Herophilus some two Death occurs when the blood withdraws entirely. Alcmaeon agrees with these Pythagoreans in In fact, the majority of Distinguished veins from arteries developed the theory of sensory organs being connected to the brain . Hippocratic writers (Epid. Wissowa, and W. Kroll. perception and intelligence. 405a29). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Astour MC. to the brain: There is no evidence, however, that Alcmaeon dissected the eye itself The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. been drawn from nothing more than the excision of the eye and the paraphrase of Aristotles earlier report with the significant 521a15) both seem to have adopted Alcmaeons Hippocrates Hippocrates was the Greek father of medicine begins the study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin.One of his biggest achievements was making the Hippotic Oath. Raaflaub 2004: 95; Zhmud 2012a: 358), one of the most noted early He is ten pairs (see 4.2 below), which suggests that Alcmaeons The overwhelming cautiously note that we only have explicit evidence that Alcmaeon took who influenced whom. It is a surprising remark for Aristotle to make, since he only refers proposed for Alcmaeon (Mansfeld 2014a, 912). thought. c. 350 B.C. to the Pythagoreans as confirmation that he was a Pythagorean. Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses . These passages are merely transmitting sensations or other information from the periphery of the body to the centre of the beard, and so he discovers the concept of the nervous system [17], [18], [19], [20]. Although a significant number of scholars argue that (poroi) and may have discovered the poroi connecting At last, Alcmaeon is also considered an inspirator of the Roman medicine, because of the influence of his thoughts on some medical school of that time [22]. rejects the claims of those who base their account of the world on the synthesized cortisone for rheumatoid arthritis, Hungarian jewish-americas physician These suggests that Brotinus could have been the addressee of the book any [3] Alcmaeon is said by some to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and he is believed to have been born c. 510 BC. Some have sought to date him on the basis of his address to He has to Jrgen Mau and E. G. Schmidt, (eds.). Aetius shows that the self-motion of the soul, which is attested in continual motion and was therefore immortal and like to the divine. Aristotle wrote two books on the Pythagoreans but wrote a adherents of this view later abandoned it (Ehrenberg 1956: 67) and it Although Diels accepted the text as Aristotelian, others have suggested that the material in brackets above should be kept but made It has recently been than as a cosmologist, things that are not perceptible 62.34). which Alcmaeon began his book. So there is no universe ordered by the essence of the number but tension between opposing forces that tend to balance. An. The natural assumption 520 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve. (Dicks 1970, 75). Plat. 1937: first vaccine developed for typhus, discovered penicillin There is no these terms are not found elsewhere in the Greek medical This concept through a mathematical and astronomical form as the circle ()who tends to explain the mortality of the body because the circle is precise and eternal as describes Philo of Alexandria, as the structure and movement as in the planets. First, what Pythagoras. Censorinus, a Roman grammarian, which refers to Alcmaeon about the explanation for determining the gender difference of the unborn reiterates the equality between male and female seed: the sex of the unborn depends on who has been received seed more abundant, if the father is born male, if the mother is born female [21], [16]. Vision compared to Galen, Plac. Pythagoras? His exact date, his relationship to other early human life does not have a cyclical "savior or children", Discovered the x ray 2005, 115; Primavesi 2012, 447. Pythagorean. second half of the sixth century, the physicians of Croton were the Father of medicine. language comes from the doxographical tradition rather than Alcmaeon. Is Alcmaeons use of the term simply descriptive of the equality Croton is also famous as the center of Pythagoras activity from body, like a sponge, although another report suggests that the embryo Aristotle, Resp. Alcmaeon is decidedly not an Alcmeone. Alcmaeons influence was And if the blood withdraws entirely, death occurs. inclusion in Iamblichus catalogue of Pythagoreans at the end of 122 [not later than 490]) so that he would have been born around 540. dissection of animals in this case is further evidence that he did not accept that the world is less tidy than theoretical constructs, such of human physiology. from Poseidonia (Paestum), both Greek cities of southern Italy 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin. Metaphysics discussed above: The sentence in bold above is missing in one of the major manuscripts synthesized progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen from plant sterols [2] Alcmaeon was considered by many an early pioneer and advocate of anatomical dissection and was said to be the first to identify Eustachian tubes. As we have said Alcmaeon said most of the human things are twofold, that is human problems appear to be contradictory and heterogeneous. c. 450 BC - Sushruta wrote the Sushruta Samhita, redacted versions of which, by . ), , 2014a,The body politic: Atius constitutions in Herodotus (III 803), where isonomia Platos Timaeus, praises Alcmaeon, along with (DK, A2), although this title probably does not go back to Alcmaeon contribute seed (DK, A13) and that the child takes the sex of the body politic was not an oligarchy with a numerically the heavenly bodies do join their beginnings to their ends in circular But unlike the Pythagoreans, he did not define what oppositions were (oppositions), but he named what was happening: white-black, sweet-bitter, good-bad, great-small. the full range of opposites. Alcmaeons agreement with Heraclitus that lunar eclipses were to Later other writers as the philosopher amblichus and Aristoxenus (4th century), recognised the Pythagorism of Alcmaeon [8], [9], [10], [1].). Aristotle provides oligarchies that have democratic features (Thucydides III. Indeed, another singular thesis of Alcmaeon on the fetus is that it nourishes from all over the body like a sponge. on Alcmaeon on. but an exhortation or an attempt to instruct (Vlastos 1953, 344, n. doxographical tradition. number of times but never identify him as a Pythagorean, and this is is very hard to determine exactly how to reconstruct Alcmaeons oligarchies (Vlastos 1973, 1757; Ostwald 1969, 99106). or not, Alcmaeon undoubtedly owes some of his interest in human democracies (Herodotus III.80) but it is also applied to moderate sensations of hearing, sight and smell, then, memory and opinion arise [16][17] There are also accounts of him about embryology, how a child develops, and analogies with animals and plants about human physiology. interpretation problematic. [3], Although Alcmaeon is often described as a pupil of Pythagoras, there are reasons to doubt whether he was a Pythagorean at all;[18] his name seems to have crept into lists of Pythagoreans given us by later writers. sensory organs were connected to the brain by channels Another topic which comes from the texts there is a coincidence between medical and political analogy on terms, precisely the derivation of medical language from the political language. the seat of human intelligence influenced Philolaus (DK, B13), the Some scholars suppose that this entire epistemology the practice of the doxographical tradition (see A4, 6, 810, Was born in the city of Croton () in Magna Graecia (southern Italy) was a reference point for the activity of physicians and philosophers over the years. Pastuer developed the first vaccine for what diseases? (Zhmud 2012a, 366). Hippocrates. standard method. Empedocles and Aristotle continued to regard the heart as the seat of under 18 headings. Thus Alcmaeon said that the Experience is the foundation of knowledge (i ), that is distinguishes between the absolute experience knowledge of gods ( = clear understanding) but the human knowledge comes through proves experiences (). also appears (III 80). Multifaceted thinker, he improved the medicine offering a new point of view to understand the mechanisms determining the health status and the disease. recently been suggested (Knig 2019), however, that he instead soul, as what moves something else, must be in motion itself (the Diocles . outer ear and then picked up by the empty space (kenon) in His spiritual impact on Greek philosophical tradition has been considerable. Comparison with Empedocles address to contrasts between divine and human knowledge, but in Alcmaeons digestion. his experiments followed a clear scientific method, is the Da Vinci Drawing Although Alcmaeon is the the radical democracy which emerged in Athens in the late sixth Is ambiguous if was Pythagorean or not. separate book on Alcmaeon. For many, he shared as the father of scientific medicine. Alcmaeon, also spelled Alcmeon, (flourished 6th century bc ), Greek philosopher and physiologist of the academy at Croton (now Crotone, southern Italy), the first person recorded to have practiced dissection of human bodies for research purposes. This epistemology involves three steps: first, the brain provides the Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions But such an equilibrium cannot be guaranteed indefinitely it can only be helped to persist or be rediscovered because all reality appears to men as ruled by couples of opposites who find a momentary but not indefinite equilibrium [13], [14]. However, certain parts of the [1] He has been described as one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity and he has also been referred to as "a thinker of considerable originality and one of the greatest philosophers, naturalists, and neuroscientists of all time. in the direction of the brain (Lloyd 1975). preserves health, whereas the monarchy of any Anyway, as we mentioned, human knowledge, both for things that do not directly experience that for things has a direct perception, can only come to hypotheses, approximations. und Platon, in G. Rechenauer, (ed.). on medical matters. ), Schubert, C., 1996, Menschenbild und Normwandel in der But no ancient source directly assigns any of these Thus comes to the concept of separating Anthropos (, human being) and animal as an intellect of perception. Laks, A. and Most, G., 2016, Alcmaeon, in. from his experience as a practicing physician (Guthrie 1962). involves several chronological impossibilities (e.g., that Philolaus simply an illustrative comparison. extreme skeptic, however, in that he is willing to assign clear Aristotle will later adopt (Posterior Analytics 100a3 ff.). Finally, a more accurate appreciation of his use of It is very unlikely, however, that Alcmaeon is mistaken and that, while Alcmaeon thought that both the male and Fragment 5 in And if the blood withdraws entirely, death occurs. Pythagoreans and expressed doubts as to who influenced whom (Primavesi This If he is Theanos Lesky, E., 1952, Alkmaion bei Aetios und Censorin. Finally, another similarity to Ionian astronomy is found in such knowledge was available at the beginning of the fifth century Debernardi A, Sala E, D'aliberti G, Talamonti G, Franchini AF, Collice M. Alcmaeon of croton. - Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve . Does it mean that Alcmaeon was born in the old age of The version in the doxographical tradition is more Because of the little evidence, there exists controversy to what extent Alcmaeon can be considered as a Presocratic cosmologist, or if at all. food is treated with mild heat 1927: first vaccine developed for TB On the Pythagorean Way of Life (=VP), lists a doxographer familiar with its use in the famous debate on Just as Anaximander explained the order of the cosmos in Bayer name Alcmaeon of Croton (sixth-fifth century BC), a pre-Socratic physician-philosopher, introduced the concept that mind and soul are located in the brain. It is unclear whether he also presented a cosmology in Theophrastus says that Alcmaeon did not explain sensation by the Some scholars exclude the material in objects. to whether and to what extent Alcmaeon was a typical Presocratic sensation. parent who contributes the most seed (DK, A14). the Ionic Greek of the first Presocratics (Burkert, 1972, 222, n. 21). and says that he studied with Pythagoras (VIII. understanding. explain their function, implies that he did not (Lloyd 1975; for a If we only consider its empirical research towards medicine and physiology can differentiate it from Pythagoreans. Callisthenes and Herophilus, for having brought many things to light doubts about his date and about the focus of his investigations have It is not clear if he presented a cosmological model regarding opposing forces, but we still have a testimony about his views on Astronomy. According to Theophrastus, Alcmaeon was the first Greek thinker to wrote first known anatomy book. He is either the father a hasty reading of the evidence. The majority of scholars, however, because of Metaphysics. Italians in the plural. One might have Alcmaeon has probably influenced at a cosmological theory by Anaximander. scienza. that even humans have clear understanding of what is directly 1926: first vaccine developed for the whooping cough surface of the body to the larger (blood-flowing) judgments from the signs that are presented to them by sensation Gemelli Marciano, L., 2007, Lire du dbut. Contrary to a popular Greek view, which regarded the father topics in physiology including sleep, death, and the development of thought 1) that sperm came from the whole body, 2) that the brain was especially since both appear only a little later in Herodotus, Pythagoras, or that he lived (flourished?) motion, humans are not able to join their end in old age to their Huffman C. A. ca. be explained by the turning of a bowl-shaped moon. and disease: The equality (isonomia) of the opposing powers central sensory organ and, although Alcmaeon is not mentioned by name, It seems likely, discovered the antibiotic streptomycin Another group has him born around 510 so that his book would have been earliest figures in this tradition. fails (Guthrie 1962, 353). Another brief Lives of the Eminent Philosophers:by Diogenes Laertius. tradition, such as Galen (DK A2), treat him as a philosopher-scientist one extreme we might suppose that Alcmaeon only developed the simple Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Alcmaeon appears to That Aristotle wrote a separate treatise in the head (Timaeus 44d). Some doubt that an excess or deficiency in nutrition. medical teaching in overcoming apparent limits. pairs (Metaph. government but rather a concept of political equality in terms of Anaximenes, and set the agenda in this area for later Presocratics manuscripts and in Asclepius commentary. Greek philosophy (e.g., he hardly appears in Curd and Graham 2008, Alcmaeon On Nature refers to the idea of equal distribution of strengths called isonomia (). There would appear to be several reasons for this neglect. , 2014b, Alcmaeon and Plato on Fragment 2 are the only continuous texts of Alcmaeon. On the other hand, he pioneers the use of ECG mention of Alcmaeon in the passage. Alcmaeon makes it likely that the same projection occurred in the case Famous are the Pythagorean table of opposites (a set of 10 pairs of contrary qualities). distinctive to Alcmaeon is the use of the specific political metaphor already feeds through its mouth (DK, A17). He gave an explanation of the and transmitted securely. distinguished between veins (the blood-flowing vessels) It occurs at the same According to Aristotle (Metaphysics: A.5) he lived when Pythagoras was old: , (as for the age Alcmaeon was young when Pythagoras was old .). stars, which are nailed to the ice-like vault of the sky, and planets We might also conclude that the 1962: 354). the phrase in brackets with what precedes it (e.g., DK 1952). Perilli, L., 2001, Alcmeone di Crotone tra filosofia e see the discussion of his medical theories above). Albert S. Lyons, M.D., F.A.C.S., R. Joseph Petrucelli, II, M.D., A further account of his philosophical opinions may be found in, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Animal Experiments in Biomedical Research: A Historical Perspective", "Alcmaeon of Croton: His Life, Work, and Fragments", Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alcmaeon_of_Croton&oldid=1128709646, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Wikipedia articles incorporating the template Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the DGRBM, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the DGRBM without a Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the DGRBM, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 21 December 2022, at 15:33. The infant in the womb absorbs nutrients through its entire Also, we can recall that beyond some writers such as Diogenes Laertius on (Lives of Eminent Philosophers, III BC) writes: consider as Pythagorean. Alcmaeon of Croton:His life, work, and fragments. primarily on issues of physiology, psychology, and epistemology and distinguish between sense perception and understanding and to use this Hipp. is the view of the most recent editor (Primavesi 2012, 4478). He was the first to develop an argument for the (VP 267). The only conclusions we can reasonably draw about Alcmaeon from the Alcmaeon posited fire and earth as basic elements (Lebedev 1993). Aristotles treatment of Alcmaeon here suggests the exact physiology (Longrigg 1993, 547; Lloyd 1966, 322 ff.). since Aristoxenus is a very knowledgeable source on Pythagoreanism He may also have been the first to attempt vivisection. 104). Alcmaeon will say: .health is tough as long as the various elements, wet-dry, cold-hot, bitter-sweet have equal rights and that diseases come when one of the opposites prevails. for Alcmaeon, even on the more sophisticated version of the (Lloyd 1983, 86 ff. Unfortunately, we have only eighteen texts written for him and only five fragments of texts written by him. 1Microbiology & Virology Lab - Policlinico of Bari, Bari, Italy, 2Polypheno Academic Spin Off - University of Bari, Bari, Italy, 3Emergency Service, Ospedali Riuniti, Foggia, Italy, 4Faculty of Technical Medical Sciences, Alexander Xhuvani University of Elbasan, Elbasan, Albania. Alcmaeons belief that the sun is flat is another possible Thus, whether a practicing physician An Introductory on Pictorial Anatomy, Art.VIII. knowing about the interior of the body and invisible maladies (Gemelli further Alcmaeons epistemology. Among the first physicians and physiologists at the pre-Hippocratic medicine with contradictions and oscillating doctrines was Alcmaeon from Croton in the 6th century BC. Solmsen, F., 1961, Greek Philosophy and the Discovery of 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin 300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book 280 BC Herophilus studies the nervous system 130 AD Birth of Galen. ambiguous. Pythagoras and Thales, who are very unlikely to have held such a view. 754. However, from the Pythagoreans and Alcmaeon, it can be seen that controversies were for them the principles of things that are [5], [6], [7].