James Longrigg Medicine From Lyceum To Museum Chapter Summaries

James Longrigg gives an alternative view of ancient Greek evidence and the value it has. He assesses the impact of the ancient Greeks to the early development of medical science. He starts with an introduction that sets out the terms of his approach. Almost immediately Longrigg distinguishes between the originality and the rational nature of Greek medicine in its progression of natural means of explanation regarding the causation and character of disease and health. There are seven chapters of this book and each with an informative title.
The first chapter is titled Pre-rational and irrational medicine in Greece and neighbouring cultures, which is about how the medical kind of writing was established. Longrigg discusses how the Greeks’ have a popular belief in supernatural causation and/or cures of diseases. He goes against the idea that the Egyptians and Babylonians led the Greeks in the development of rational medicine.
The second chapter is titled Ionian natural philosophy and the origins of rational science. …show more content…
Longrigg discusses his belief that the treatment of Aristotle is rather symbolic. He argues that there is a problematic inconsistency in Aristotle’s description of the elements physical and biological works. Longrigg further argues that the discrepancy may be the result of the influence of the Hippocratic and Sicilian medical theories. Longrigg discusses different comparisons and contrasts with Plato. He also praises Aristotle’s outstanding achievement in the commencement of the practice of systematic animal dissection within the Lyceum. Longrigg goes on to argue that the physician Diocles was a contemporary of Aristotle and a major influence on his biological thought. The chapter concludes with a short discussion of the contact and similarity in view between Diocles and Praxagoras who was the teacher of two other physicians, Herophilus and