ГЕРОФИЛ О ПУЛЬСЕ
HEROPHILUS ON PULSE
Author(s): Anna Afonasina, Eugene AfonasinSubject(s): Cultural history
Published by: Новосибирский государственный университет
Keywords: Ancient medicine, Alexandrian school, pulse diagnostics, measuring, musical intervals, harmony
Summary/Abstract: The first detailed study of the pulse (sphygmology) is associated in antiquity with Herophilus (the end of the 4th century BCE), an Alexandrian physician, renowned for his anatomical discoveries. The scholars also attribute to him a discovery of a portable and ad-justable water-clock, used for measuring ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ pulse and, accordingly, temperature of the patient. In the article we translate the principal ancient evidences and comment upon them. We study both the practical aspects of ancient sphygmology and the theoretical speculations associated with it. Ancient theory of proportion and musical harmony allowed to build a classification of the pulses, but the medical experience did not fit well in the Procrustean bed of this rather simple theory.
Journal: ΣΧΟΛΗ. Философское антиковедение и классическая традиция
- Issue Year: IX/2015
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 93-104
- Page Count: 11
- Language: Russian