[Reprinted ffom The Neuroscemtst, Volume 1, Number 4 July 195 Aristotle on the Brain CHARLES G. GROSS ‘Atistotle argued that the heart was the center of sensation and movement. By contrast, his prodeosssors, such as Alemason, and his contemporaries, such asthe Hippocratic doctors, attriuted these functions tothe brain. This article examines Aristotle's views on brain function in the context of his time and considers their subsequent influence on the development ofthe brain sconces. The Neuroscientst1:245-250, 1005 KEY WORDS Aristote, History of science, Greek science, Localization of function ‘Aistole's ame is invariably inked 19 Philosophy; indeed, for centuries, h wwas known as “The Philosopher. However, he was also the leading bi ‘logist of classical antiquity and one of the greatest biologists ofall time. He is usually considered the founder of comparative anatomy, the first embry- logis, the first taxonomist, the first evolutionist, the fist biogeographer, and the first systematic student ofa ral behavior (1-4, butef. 5). Not only ‘vas he important to the development of biology, bat biology was very im- portant in his own development as a thinker. Over a quarter of his writings were on biology, and his biological work was crucial in distancing him from his teacher, Plato (6-8). Beyond biology, he was a true universal ge- ios, writing with permanent impact ‘on sich subjects as logic, metaphysics, art, theater, psychology, economics, and polities. His formerly dominating influence on the physical and biolog cal sciences, however, has largely appeared in the ast several centuries Pethaps Aristotle's most egregious scientific errr fell in the domain we now call neuroscience: he systemati- cally denied the controlling role of the brain in sensation and movement, g1V- ing, instead, this function tothe heart. Thegin consideration of ths enigma by summarizing the views on brain fune- tion held bythe Greek philosopher-sc emtsts before Aristotle. Then, the ar- guments and evidence Aristotle put forward for his curious views are pre- sented. Finally, I examine the infu: ‘om th Deparmen of Pgclagy, Piston Volume 1, Number 4, 1905 Copytight © 1905 by Willams & Wikine ISN 1079-0504 ‘ence of Aristotle on the subsequent de- velopment of the brain sciences. Figures 1 and 2 provide some orienta- tion in time and space for this article. ‘Alcmaeon of Croton Formal science, the idea that the uni- ‘verse is a complicated mechanism work- ing according to fixed laws that could be ‘understood through human reason, be ‘gan with the pre-Socratic philosopher- scientists Thales, Anaximander and An- aximenes in sixth-century BCE Miletus, Greek city in Asia Minor (1, 9). By the ‘middle of the fifth century, there were ‘three major centers of Greek medical science: Croton, in what is now southern Italy, Agrigentum on the south coast of ‘modern Sicily, and Cos, an island off ‘modern Turkey. The oldest of these ‘medical centers was in Crofon, and its ‘most famous member was Alemacon, Croton was also the site of the Pythag- ‘orean brotherhood, and there seems 10 have been considerable interaction be- ‘tween the Pythagoreans and the medical school (10-12). ‘Alemacon was the first writer to ‘champion the brain asthe site of sensa- tion and cognition. He also seems to have been the frst practitioner of ana- tomic dissection asa tool of intellectual inquiry. His most detailed dissections and theories were on the senses, partic- ularly vision. Alemaeon described the ‘optic nerves, noted that they “came to- ‘gether behind the forehead" (which is ‘why, he opined, the eyes move together) and suggested that they were “light- bearing paths” to the brain. He removed and dissected the eye, and observed that it contained water. Observations of what ‘are now called phosphenes after a blow to the eye led him to conclude that the feye also contained light (ire) and that this light was necessary for vision (11, 13, 14). This idea thatthe eye contains light became the basis of theories of vi- sion that persisted beyond the Renais- sance. Indeed, Alemseon's idea of light inthe eye was only disproved inthe mid- dle ofthe eighteenth century (15) . ‘Among the other pre-Socratc philos- opher-scientists who adopted and ex- panded on Alemaeon's view of the func- tions of the brain were Democritus, ‘Anaxagoras, and Diogenes (10, 13, 14, 16). Democritus developed a version that became very influential because of its impact on Plato. Specifically, Democ- ritus taught that everything in the uni- verse is made up of atoms ofa particular size and shape. The psyche (soul, mind, vital principle is made up of the lightest, most spherical and fastest moving at coms. Although the psychic atoms are dispersed among other atoms throughout the body, they are much more numerous in the brain. Slightly cruder atoms are concentrated in the heart, making it the center of emotion, and still cruder ones are located in the liver, which conse- quently is the seat of lust and appetite. This tichotomy developed into Plato's hierarchy of the parts of the soul in which there is no question about the su- premacy of the brain. As he put in the Timaeus (17), “Its the divinest part of us and lord overall the rest” Then, in Galen's medical theorizing, the three soul-parts became the three pneumas of ‘umoral physiology that dominated med- ical thought for so many centuries (18, 19). ‘However, Alcmaeon's view ofthe he- gemony of the brain was not universal ‘among the pre-Socratic philosopher-sci- ‘enists. For example, Empedocles, the leading member of the medical center at Agrigentum, taught that the blood was ‘the medium of thought, and the degree of intelligence depended on the compo- sition of the blood (14, 16). Thus, for him, the heart was the central organ of intellect and the seat of mental disorder. ‘The general idea of the heart as the seat of intelligence and emotion was not new. It had been held in many earlier cultures such as the Egyptian, Mesopo- tamian, Babylonian, and Indian (20,21) Its reported to be common among non- Titerate cultures as well 20), ae illus trated by the oft-quoted remark of a Pueblo chief to C.G. Jung (22), “Tknow you white men think with the brain, That ‘THE NEUROSCIENTIST 245,Fig. 1. accounts for your shortcomings. We red ‘men think with dhe hear.” Ancient Chi- fnese medicine had rather more compli- cated views than the relatively simple hheart-centered ones of other ancient caltures, but it also thoroughly ignored the brain 23, 24). In fact, che role of the brain in perception and cognition did not enter Chinese thought until the Jesuit Mattoo Ricci’s treatise (in 1595, in Chi nese) on the art of memory, which he wrote as part of his campaign to convert the scholar class (25) The Hippocratic Doctors ‘The third great center for the teaching and practice of medicine in the fifth cen- tury BCE was the island of Cos, and its ‘most famous member was Hippoctates. ‘The frst arge body of Wester scien writings that have survived ic the Hip pocratic corpus, Although there is no {question that Hippocrates was areal his- torical figure, its not clear which of the ‘writings called Hippocratic were actu- ally writen by bim (26). The Hippo- cratic corpus consists of more than 60 treatises, which vary enormously in style ‘and technical level and which were not ‘written by one author, oF even in one period. Unlike Alemacoa and. the Croton School, the Hippocratic doctors did not practice dissection and their knowledge fof anatomy was slight. However, like the 1pre-Socratic thinkers in general, they re- jected supernatural causes of disease and ‘sought natural explanations through ob- servation and extended case studies (1, 10, 12), Similarly detailed accounts of disease processes were rare until after the Renaissance and even thea tended to be advertisements for the skill of the physician rater than empirical studies. ‘The Hippocratic work of greatest rel- vance to brain function i the famed es- say “On the Sacred Disease" (7), Which is epilepsy. The work, probably designed as a lecture for laymen, opens ‘with an homage to reason andthe rejec- tion of superstition: 1 do mot believe thatthe Sacred Disease is any more divine or sacred than any ‘ther disease, bat, on the contrary, has specific characteristics and a definite Tis my opinion thet chose who fist called this disease “sacred” were the sort Of people we now call witeh-docoes, fitshealers, quacks, and charlatans ‘These are exactly the people who pre tend to be very pious and tobe paricu- larly wise, By invoking a divine element they were able wo green thet owa fil ture t0 pve suitable treatment and so called this ‘sacred’ malady to conceal {heir ignorance of emote “The author has no doubt that the brain is the seat ofthis disease. As tothe general fonctions of the brain, he is equally clear: 1 ought to be generally known thatthe source of our pleasure, metrimen, Tnugite, and amusement, sof 0 gee, pain, anxiety, and tears, i none other than the bran. Tis specially the organ ‘which enables ws think, ee, and hea, fod to distinguish the ugly andthe beau tiful te bad and the good, pleasant and tupleasant = Te 38 the rain 10 which i the eat of madness and deli Jum, ofthe fears and fights which asa ts, often by night, bot sometimes even by day, i there where lis the cause of insomnia and sloep-walling. of ‘thoughts that will noe come, forgoten ities, and eccenicts. Furthermore, he states, neither the dia phragm nor the heart has any mental functions, as some have claimed "*Nei- ther of these organs takes any part n ‘mental operations, which are completely ‘undertaken by the brain, "What then isthe cause of epilepsy, the so-called sacred disease? He goes on to say that it attacks only the phlegmatic, those with an excess of phlegm or Should... routs forthe passage of phlegm fom the brain be blocked, the fsctarge ener dhe blvn-vesels this cases aphonia choking, foaming st the mouth, clenching of the teeth and convulsive movements ofthe hands; the 248 THE NEUROSCIENTIST ‘Aristotle on the Branerie des Aoander it "Yalow Emperors Case "Fee aes tas Casares ons Diogenes Lertus ‘Cheating in Rome Fig.2. eyes are fixed, the patent becomes un conscious and, in some cases, pastes & tool, ‘These extracts from “On the Sacred Dis- cease” typify the best of Hippocratic ‘medicine: a total absence of superstition, accurate clinical description, ignorance ‘of anatomy and a physiology, which is largely an absurd mixture of false anal ‘ogy, speculation, and humoral theory. Pethaps the entite history of medicine can be viewed as the narrowing of the ‘gap between the medical empiricism characteristic of the School of Cos and the knowledge of structure and mecha- nism sought by the School of Croton, Finally, 1€ should be noted that the “Hippocratic Oath" not only had no connection with the Hippocratic school, but is quite deviant from mainstream ‘Volume 1, Number 4, 1995 Greek medical and social practice in sev- eral ways (28). In its original form, it forbids both suicide and abortion, but, in fact, neither was censured or illegal in Hippocratic times, or more generally. in classical Greece and Rome. The oath also forbids surgery. Although surgical intervention was not common, it was df initely used by the Hippocratic doctors to drain pus, set fractures, and reduce dislocations. Finally, Hippocratic doc- tors, like most others before and after, taught for a fee despite the oath's in- Junetions against such practices. The s0- called Hippocratic oath seems to have derived from a much later secret neo Py thagorean sect that was antsuicide, anti- abortion, and antisurgery. The oath may then have become popular with the rise of Christianity, because the Church was ‘opposed to suicide and abortion, and ith the separation of medicine from the “lower craft” of surgery. Aristotle on the Brain and Heart Aristotle was bom in 384 BCE in Sta- gira to a medical family. His father, Who had been personal physician to Amyntas II, King of Macedonia (father of Philip 1), died at a young age, and Aristotle's early education was probably provided by his father's fellow physi cians. In those days, as now, a well-ed- tucated physician needed some general culture, so atthe age of 17, he was sent off to Plato's Academy in Athens, He stayed there for 20 years and never did begin his medical waining. When Pato died in 347, his nephew took over the academy, and Aristotle let ‘Athens with some fiends forthe island of Lesbos and the adjacent mainland where he apparently spent mach time studying marine biology. Pilip then appointed hin private tutor to his son, Alexander, until at age 16, Alexander became regent of Macedo and bad Use ime for turer academic studies. Aristole retumed to ‘Actens in 335 and founded a new school ‘and research center, the Lyceum, It re- ceived financial support from Alexander ‘who, according to Pliny, also sent it bio- logical specimens as he proceeded 1 con- ‘quer the known world. Thirteen years later and a few months before his death, Aris- totle was driven from Athens by th ascent of anti-Alexandrian factions. Aristo, of so Diogenes Lact, and other ancient authorities tell us, was small, Iisping, sa- caste, arrogant, elegant, and happily mar- ried (1, 10) Now let us tum to Aristotle's views on the brain, which have embarrassed and ppzzled historians and scientists from Galen of Pergamum, who “blushed to quote” them (19, 29, 30). Aiattle he lieved that the heart and not the brain was the center of sensation and movement: And of course, the brain isnot respon- sible fr any ofthe sensations at al. The correct view [is thatthe seat and source of sensation is the region of the hoart (P6560, $80 Box). We motions of pléasure and pain, and generally all sensation plainly have their source inthe heart PABA). ll sanguineous animals possess 1 hear. and both movement and the dominant sense perception originate there (SW456. in all sanguineous animals the supreme organ ofthe sense-acule ies inthe hear" (04699), ‘Table 1 summariaes Aristotle's argu- ‘ments for the heart and against the brain as the center of sensation and movement. Aristotle was well aware of the earlier claims for the dominance of the brain as ‘opposed to the heat, such as those of ‘Alcmacon, Plato, and Hippocrates, and repeatedly’ argues against their “falla- cious" views (PA656a,b). For example, hoe claims his predecessors say that the scarcity of flesh around the brain isin or der for sensation to get through. But, Ar- jstote answers thatthe fleshlessness i in accordance with the cooling function of the brain and furthermore, the back of the head is also fleshless, but there are no sense organs there. They also mention thatthe sense organs are placed near the brain, but Aristolle gives # numberof al- termate reasons for that. For example, the eyes face frontwand so that we can see along the line we are moving, and itis reasonable enough that the eyes should always be located near the brain, for the brain is fuid and cold, and the sense organ of sigh is identical in its na- ture with water." The ears are located on the sides of the head to hear sounds from all directions. In any case, there are ani- mals who hear and smell and don’t have these organs in their head, Furthermore, there are sense organs inthe head because the blood is especially pure in the head region, which makes for more precise sensation, Galen and many subsequent historians ‘of medicine are somewhat unfair in claiming that Aristotle simply dismissed the brain as cold and wet. Rather, for Ar- isto, the brain was only second to the Iheart in importance and was essential to THE NEUROSCIENTIST 247“Table 1. Aristotle's Arguments for the Heart and against the Bain asthe Center for Sensation and Movement Heart 1 Affected by emotion (PAGES) 2. All animals have a heart orsiilarorgen (GA771a, Paces) 8, Source of blood, which is necessary for sensation (Pa8676) 4. Warm, charactrstlcof higher Ife (884396) 5. Connected with all the sense organs and muscles, via the blood vessels (GA744a, HA4O2a, 469a, GATBte) 6. Essent for ite (¥O4890, Pe647a) 7. Formed fst, and last to stop working (GA741) 8. Sensitive (SS430e, PABES). 9. 1n a central location, appropriate forts central role _PABTOA) | 1 Not affected (PABS2b, 6568) 2. Only vertebrates and cephalopods have one, and yet other enimels have sensations (PAGSEE) 8. Bloodlese and therefore without sensation (HAMG4a, 5148, PATB5a) 4, Cold (PA#52, HA4OE@S) '5. Not connected with the sense organs or the connection irelevant (PA852b, HASOS) 6. Not 90 (HASSZa, GA741b) 7. Formed second (@A674b) 8. Insenskive: Ifthe brain of atving animal be ial bare, It may be ‘cut without any sigs of pain or struggling (PABS2D, 6564) 9. Not 80 the functioning of the hear. The heart to- which are intrinsically cold (PA653a).1In__ none to have been made without a func- ‘ether with the brain formed a unit that order that the brain is not completely tion to perform. Rather, be believed the Controlled the body. The heart, which is cold, it receives a moderate amount of brain to play an essential, although sub- naturally hot, he argued, “must be coun- eat from branches ofthe aorta and the ~ ordinate, role in a“*heart-brain" system ‘erbalanced, in order to asin the mean, vena cava that end in the membrane that that was responsi the true and the rational position: Thus, surrounds the brain (PA652b). When the deed, man’s superior intelligence is the brain, which is naturally cold, tempers brain cools the hot vapor reaching it credited to his large brain. the heat and seething of the heart fromthe heart, phlegm is produced. This Although Aristotle may have not ig- (PA652). idea that the brain produces phlegm is nored the brain quite as much as is often For if the brain be ether too fd or t00 also found in ""Ihe Sacred Disease,” as claimed, it remains puzzling why he Tad. ttn peroum wcetice, ber n0ted above, ands fossilized in our own made sucha stang ero and took such inthe one case will freeze the blood and FT. uitary,* coming from the Latin a different view from Alemaeon and the inthe othe wll ot cool it at al, end “tuts” which means phlegm. Man's Hippocratic doctors, and above all from thus case disease, madness and death, bran, according to Aristotle isthe arg- his teacher Plato. Aristotle had adduced For the cardia heat andthe center of est and-moistest brain for its size anatomical, physiological, comparative, [eis most delicate initssympaties nd (HA494b, PAGS34). This is because in embryological, and introspective evi- ‘s immediately sensitive to the slightest man, the heart is hottest and richest and dence for his view of brain function. But ‘change or affection of the blod or the outer surface of the brain (PA6S34). ‘Aristotle gave the following explana tat tions for the cold nature of the br ‘must be counterbalanced, for man's su- there was an essential approach abst. peor intelligence depends onthe fact This was the clinical approach the study istargertriniseapable of keeping of the benninred ma," The 10 }) the heart cool enough for optimal mental champions of the hegemony of the brain, the blood which t contains nits vessels activity (PAGH806506- a). (Woman's Alemaeon and Hippocrates, were both {sthin pure and easly cooled ($S444e); bain is smaller than man’s (PAGS3b), «practicing physicians. The evidence that 2)thevessclson andinthebranarevery view of Aristotle's that persisted mich both had given in suppor of ther opin thin and pemniteveporation, cooling the longer than bis view ofthe mena fne- ions was scl clinical. Because theres brain (SWAS8a); and 3) when the brain ons of the hear.) Thus, Aristoe did no evidence of ysematic experiments on is boiled andthe water init evaporates, not merely dismiss te bran as cold andthe bain and nervous system until Galen hard earths lef indicating thatthe brain wet. Indeed, it would have been unlike inthe second century, the accident of ma- is made of water and each, both of him‘ dismiss any organ, fore thought ture were the oly soures of information Box 1: A Note on Classical Sources All the works of the pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists are lost, All we have are extracts collected by the ancient dex- ‘ographers. These were assembled by H. Diels atthe beginning of the century and translated into English by Freeman (14. Aristotle's works here, and more generally, are cited by the page numbers given by I. Bekker in the nineteenth cen- ‘tury, Tuse the following abbreviations for individual works: GA, Generation of Animals, trans. A.L. Peck, Harvard, ‘Cambrldge, 1942, HA, History of Animals, tans. ALL. Peck, Harvard, Cam- bridge, 1965. PA, Parts of Animals, trans. A.L. Peck, Harvard, Cam- bridge, 1955, SS, On Sense and Sensible Objects in Parva Naturalia, trans. W.S. Hett, Harvard, Cambridge, 1957. ‘SW, On Sleep and Waking in Parva Naturalis, trans. W.S, Hett, Harvard, Cambridge, 1957. ‘YO, On Youth and Old Age in Parva Naturalia, trans. W.S. Hett, Harvard, Cambridge, 1957. ‘Von Staden (37) has collected and translated the frag ‘ments of Herophilus, and Dobson (38) has done so for Es- asistratus. Other ancient sources are given inthe references, 248 THE NEUROSCIENTIST ‘Asitote on the Bainbout what the brain did. It is hard to con- ceive of Aristotle, in the course of his strictly zoological observations and dis- sections, coming across evidence strongly contradicting his view of the brain and heart. It seems clear that he never dis- secied a human, and of the 49 animals he did dissec, from elephant to snail, the majority were cold blooded (31), as were the two, chameleon and turtle, that he ob- viously’ vivisected (HAS03b, YO#86t). ‘These did indeed have “‘cold and wet" brain, and the connections of the sense ‘organs with the heart might have scemed ‘more prominent than those with the brain. On the other hand, he dissected enowigh vertebrate brains to describe the two cov- ‘ering. membranes (HA494b, 4954), the two symmetrical halves (PA665b), and a “small hollow” inthe middle (HA49Sa), pethape the lateral ventricles. Finally, i Should be noted that Aristotle neve lo- calized such peychological facullies as ‘imagination, reasoning, or memory in the heart or any place else, but viewed them 5 activities ofthe whole organism. Deopte (or, perhaps, because of) his father’s profession, Aristotle at no time seemed interested in medicine or medical ‘writing, Indeed, medicine appears to be cone of the few things that this polymath ‘as not interested in. And, inthe fourth century BCE, the study of human brain injury was the most likely way of geting a “'more coreet” view of the brain than Acistotle had. Infact, one of the few places where he approaches correct view of brain function isin the rare “‘lin- ‘cal passage quoted above (PA6S3E), in ‘hich he suggests that mental disease fol- lows from @ malfunctioning of the coot- ing functions of the brain, Six hundred ‘years later, Galen's observations of hu- ‘man head injuries led him to perform the first recorded experiments on the brain (using piglets) 32), and his observations ‘of spinal injuries of gladiators le directly to his brilliant series of experiments on the effects of spinal cord transection (33). Even today, iis often primarily clinical data that inspire experiments on animal brains. Aristotle was a pure" biologist, not an applied one, and in his day, the methodology of academic biology was incapable of yielding the corect view of the brain's role, Aristotle and the Birth of Human Neuroanatomy at the Alexandrian Museum Despite his fallacious views of brain function, Aristotle actually facilitated the subsequent development of the study of the brain. At the most general level, his stress on the importance of dissection coupled with his prestige encouraged others to perform anatomical studies (11), More specifically, he played sev- eral roles, albeit indirect ones, in the founding of the great Museum at Alex- sndria, and it was here that systematic ‘human neuroanatomy began, The mu- seum was founded at the end af the fourth century BCE by Pwolemy I, the first Greek ruler of Egypt, one of Alex- andet’s generals and his friend from boyhood. It was a vast state-supported ‘institute for research, perhaps like some ‘combination of the National Institutes of Health and the Institute for Advanced ‘Study. More than a hundred professors lived communally and had their salaries and expenses paid. The museum in- cluded lecture and study rooms, an as ‘tonomical observatory, a 200, a botani- cal garden, and dissecting and operating rooms (34,35). Is huge library was named a Wonder of the Ancient World (36). In several ways, the museum was ‘continuation and expansion of Aristode's school, the Lyceum (10, 34) First, its ‘founder Ptolemy Thad been a young pupil ‘of Aristotle, along with Alexander. Pre- sumably, Aristode sessed biology in their ‘utorials because that was his major inter. fest at the time. Second, Demetus and ‘Strato, who were both students of Theo- phvastus, Aristotle's long-term collabora- tor and his succestor as head of the Ly- coum, were called to Alexandria by Prolemy to advise him on the organization ofthe museum. (Ptolemy tried, nsuccess- fally to hire Theophrastus himself) Third, the core of the library’s collection is thought to have been gathered by Deme- trus, a least in part, rom Aristotle's own collection. As Strabo, the frstcenturyhis- ‘orian and geographer, later put it, “Aris- totle taught the kings of Egypt how to or- ‘ganize a ibrar” (36). ‘Thus, it was in the shadow of Aristotle ‘thatthe great museum anatomists, Hero- ‘philus and then Erasistratus, began the sys- tematic stady ofthe structure of the hurnan body, particulary of the nervous system, ‘They provided the frst detailed, accurate description ofthe human brain, including the ventricles (37-39). Herophilus and Er- asistratus and Wester scientist thereafter Inad no question about the dominant role of the brain in sensation, thought, and ‘movement, Herophilus claimed that the fourth venticle was the ‘‘command cen- ter,” a view rejected by Galen, who, in- stead stressed the importance of brain tase itself (The stoic philosophers, pr- ticularly Chrsippus, did continue to insist ‘on the dominant role ofthe heart (30. The localization ofthe Aristotelian psycholog- ical functions in thre spherical venticles ‘was aleter,stictly medieval religious con- struction, nether clasical nor scent, and began about 600 years later with Ne- mess, Bishop of Emesa [4042]. is re- verberation continued well ino the nine- teenth cenmey (43). ‘The immediate cause of the extraor- inary surge of interest in anatomy in second-century Alexandria was that it ‘was the fst time and place where ays tematic and open dissection ofthe h- man body could be performed. Previ- ously, enatomical dissections had been performed only on animals. The Greek reverence (and dread ofthe dead human ‘body had made is dissection quite im- Possible. What made Alexandria difer- ent? A number of factors seem to have come together (34, 37,38) One was that Herophilus and Brassiratus had the full suppor of a toalitarian regime deter- rined to glorify itself through the achievement of its scientists, As absolute rulers in a foreign land, the Ptolemys brought few inhibitions with them. A second factor must have been that dis- section of the human body forthe pur- poses of mummifiaton had been prac- ticed in Egypt for centuries, and, thus, the general cultural background of Egypt undoubtedly helped make human dissec- tion possible. However, itis very Un 1ikely thatthe Greek anatomists had any contact with the Egyptian embalmers, a the social gap between the Greeks in Al- cexandria and the natives surrounding ‘them seems to have been enormous (34). Another factor may have been the changes in philosophical atinudes to- ward dying énd the human corpse that ‘were becoming common by this time (4a) After all, Avstotle had taught that after death the body was no more than a physical frame without feeling o rights “The uniqueness of the Alexandria. ansiomy nexus is revealed by the fact that not only was human dissection prac- ticed first in Alexandria, but Alexandria ‘was the ist and virtually the only place here human vivisection was systemat- ically performed for scent purposes (31,39). As Celsus, the Roman historian ot thediine, put it (7 Tistherefore necessary for medical sts- ents] to dissect the bodies ofthe dead and examine thee viscera and intestines ‘Volume 1, Number 4, 1995 THE NEUROSCIENTIST 249Herophilus and Erasstrams, they say, ‘id this in the bes way by fa when they ‘ext open men wo were alive, ciminals tuto prison, received from Kings. And ‘while breth sll remained these crim Ins Wey inspected those pats which ‘ature previously had concealed. Nor tervel, a most people maintain, that remedies fr innocent people ofall times should be sooght in the stcrifice ‘of people guilty of crimes, and only a ew such people at that Vivisection of humans was never sys- tematically practiced again (unt the Third Reich). Even the dissection of human ca- davers disappeared in the West until it was revived in the new medieval usiversties, and then initially only for forensic, not ‘medical or scientific, purposes (18). ‘The Legacy of Aristotle's Views ‘on the Brain ‘The debate between Aristolle's advo~ cacy of the hegemony of the heart and ‘Alemaeon’s championing of the brain, particularly as transmitted through Pla- to's Timaeus, continued in the Arab ‘world and then in medieval and Renais- ssance Europe (45). A common resolu- tion was to combine the two views. For example, the great Arab Aristotelian and physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) did th by. placing sensation, cognition, and ‘movement inthe brain, which in turn he believed was controled by the heart (46), Similarly, according to the thir- teenth-century "Hebrew encyclopedist Rabbi Gershon hen Shlomoh d’Arles (4D, “the brain and heart share func tions so when one . . . is missing, the ‘other alone continues its activities by virtue of their partnership.” As Scheherazade (48) tells it on the 439th night (through Richard Burton), when the Caliph's savant asks the brilliant slave gil Tawaddud, “Where isthe seat of understanding?” she answers, “Allah casteth it in the heart whence its ilustri- ‘ous beans ascend tothe brain and there ‘become fixed."” And Portia’s song in the ‘Merchant of Venice (49) asks: ‘Tell me wher is fancie bred, (Orin the her orn the hed. ‘Acknowledgements 1 thank Maggie Berkowitz (then Angus) and also G. Berman, J. Cooper, M.A. Graziano, N. Rebmann, A. Repp, and HER. 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