Serapion of Alexandria

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Serapion of Alexandria was an ancient Greek physician . He lived from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Chr.

Serapion was the successor of the Philinos of Kos , an advocate and supporter of the empirical medical school , whereby some (like Aulus Cornelius Celsus ) is considered the actual founder. He established strict rules for medical scientific experiments. Galen and the later empiricists valued him very much.

He recommended epileptics to brush their necks with wine vinegar and their bodies with rose oil. As a remedy for epilepsy, he recommended chameleon brains, rabbit hearts, turtle blood, wild boar testicles, and for madness and tetanus enemas .

It is reported that Serapion used crocodile excrement so frequently for its treatments that fraudsters created counterfeits. He attributed infertility in women to an incorrect temperature in the uterus.

Works

  • Πρὸς τὰς διαιρέσεις.
  • θεραπευτικά.

literature

  • Véronique Boudon-Millot : Sérapion d'Alexandrie. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 204–207
  • Hans Georg von Manz: Serapion of Alexandria. In: Werner E. Gerabek (Hrsg.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Berlin 2004, p. 1321

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jutta Kollesch , Diethard Nickel : Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979 (= Reclams Universal Library. Volume 771); 6th edition ibid 1989, ISBN 3-379-00411-1 , p. 41.
personal data
SURNAME Serapion of Alexandria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek physician, empiricist
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century BC Chr.