Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 13. (Budapest, 1959)

Dr. I. CSILLAG and Dr. H. JELLINEK: From primitive Haemostatic Methods to Modern Vascular Surgery

morrhage came down now. The method of vascular ligature is linked with the name of Erasistratos (330 to 250 B. C.) Erasistratos ligated the bleeding vessels at the site of the injury and cut them through between the ligations that the terminations can contract. The people became also more openminded as regards the dissection of the human body and refused former prejudices. The Roman physician, Celsus recorded later that the physicians of Alexandria performed even human vivisection. With pennission of the king they obtained prisoners from different jails and dissected them alive. The decline of the Hellenistic Empire brought about the decomposition of the medical schools of Alexandria and Rome became the centre of medical science. From the works of the Roman Cornelius Celsus (ca. 25 B. C. to 45 A. D.) we are informed of the application of vascular ligatures. Arhigenes, acting about 100 years B. C. as surgeon in the Rome of Traian elaborated a perfect method for amputation and checked bleeding with circular sutures. He can remove an arrow shot into the head ; he operates goitres and hernias and his surgical instruments correspond to those found in the surgeon's house in Pompey (from 79 B. C, now in the Museum of Naples). Antyllos improved about 200 A. D. the technique of haemostasis and operated aneurysms after bilateral ligature of the sac. Galen (131—200 A. D.) was the greatest physician of the time. He enriched the theory of vessels. As regards his opinion on "pneuma" he was of the view that there is a movement, but no circulation of the blood, that the pneuma enters the heart and mingles with the blood therein. The blood itself is formed in the liver from the substance transported from the bowels by the hepatic vena porta. In the liver the blood will be provided with the "natural soul" and enters the right heart wherefrom it supplies all the organs. The venous blood, when reaching the heart, passes through tiny and invisible pores of which the septum is composed and so it is mixed with the blood coming from the lungs where that hael been filled with the soul of life. From