Herophilus and Erasistratus : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 16th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson.

Date:
1893
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Herophilus and Erasistratus : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 16th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Erasistratus and the Diagnosis of Love. When discussing Galen's works on a previous occasion, I brought under your notice his recognition of the ilhiess of the wife of Justus as being due to love (Kiihn's edition, Tom. XIV, p. 630); Galen, in that passage, refers to a some- what similar diagnosis made by Erasistratus, which is evidently the celebrated one narrated by various authors. I give the account as contained in Plutarch's Life of Demetrius (Lang- horne's translation):— He [Demetrius] was informed too that his daughter, who had been married to Seleucus, was now wife to Antiochus, the son of that prince, and declared queen of the barbarous nations in Upper Asia. Antiochus was violently enamoured of the young Stratonice, though she had a son by his father. His condition was extremely unhappy. He made the greatest efforts to conquer his passion, but they were of no avail. At last, considering that his desires were of the most extravagant kind, that there was no prospect of satisfaction for them, and that the succours of reason entirely failed, he resolved, in his despair, to rid himself of life, and bring it gradually to a period, by neglecting all care of his person and abstaining from food ; for this purpose he made sickness his pretence. His physician, Erasistratus, easily discovered that his distemper was love; but it was difficult to conjecture who was the object. In order to find it out, he spent whole days in his chamber; and whenever any beautiful person of either sex entered it, he observed with great attention, not only his looks, but every part and motion of the body which corresponds most with the passions of the soul. When others entered he was entirely unaffected, but when Stratonice came in, as she often did, either alone or with Seleucus, he shewed all the symptoms described by Sappho, the faltering voice, the burning blush, the tumultuous pulse, and at length, the passion overcoming his spirits, a deliquium and mortal paleness. Erasistratus concluded from these tokens that the prince was in love with Stratonice, and perceived that he intended to carry the secret with him to the grave. He saw the difficulty of breaking the matter to Seleucus; yet depending upon the affection which