ABSTRACT
Until now we have merely spoken of a more or less mild dogmatism which gradually became modified by time. That is to say, those physicians to whom we have referred still remained to a certain extent faithful to the teachings of the School of Cos. The same cannot be said of the Empirics, and Daremberg has pointed out that while the physicians of Cos and Cnidos did not differ as to the main principles of the healing art, it was at Alexandria, and from the very beginning of that school, that the medical profession became unruly and divided into two great factions, namely, the Dogmatics and Empirics. The former took as a basis a multitude of systems for their reasoning, while the latter rejected all kind of abstract reasoning. Haeser inclines to the opinion that the Empirics were composed of the followers both of Herophilus and of Erasistratus. The disciples of the Empiric School regarded Acron of Agrigentum (400 B.c.) as the founder of their sect, and we know that he lived in the time of Hippocrates. However, a certain disciple of Herophilus, namely, Philinus of Cos (250 B.c.) who wrote six books against the teachings of the celebrated Baccheius, should in all probability be considered as the first recognized professor of Empiricism, though Caelius Aurelianus mentions a work by his disciple Serapion which was far better known than the books of the master, Philinus himself.
