Dioscorides was a Greek surgeon in the army of Emperor Nero, born
in Asia Minor, around AD. 40 he joined the army of Nero so that he could go to
different countries and study their flora and fauna. During his military career, he travelled through Italy, Greece, Spain, and France, collecting a vast number
of botanical, mineral and biological specimens.
Wherever he went, he questioned
the natives about the medicinal values and practical uses of the specimens he
was medicinal values and practical uses of the specimens he was gathering. The
data thus acquired formed the basis of his famous work and Materia Medica.
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| Pedacius Dioscorides |
As
Theophrastus had been the first scientific botanist, Dioscorides was the
first to write on medical botany, an applied science. In his work, he has
described some six hundred plants and plant products. He offers detailed
directions for the gathering and storing of herbs.
He set the
pattern for later works on Materia Medica
by a qualitative rather than a botanical classification. That is, he classified
plants not based on their families, but under the diseases for which they were
cures.
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| Materia Medica |
His work was
translated into many languages and was followed as an unquestionable authority
for more than 1500 years. Up to the 17th century, the best books on
medical botany were simply commentaries on his work.
Such an utter dependence
upon an authority hampered the progress of medical botany. For centuries, no
drug was considered genuine which did not agree with Dioscoride's description.
Northern European botanists, unaware of the geographical limitation of species,
wasted an infinite amount of labour trying to identify the plants of their
region with those described by Dioscorides from the Mediterranean area. Thus,
the minds of botanists were diverted from the firsthand study of plants.
Study of the material
universe
After his
biological studies, Aristotle turned to an examination of the material
universe. As a result, he wrote many books like Physics, on the Heavens, Meteorologics*, and Mechanics. But these studies are far inferior to his
biological research, because ‘the physical world is too complex for its
secrets to be unravelled by a mere inspection’.
So he is called a ‘a feeble
physicist’. Aristotle, despite his acute power of observation, undertook no
experimentation to prove his theories. The long-range effects were disastrous. His
physical and astronomical concepts of ions were blindly accepted for centuries.
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| Aristotle |
Aristotle held
that the universe is spherical because the sphere is the most perfect shape. So he
held that the earth is also spherical. This conclusion was not based on based
on any scientific experimentation but on philosophical reasons or symmetry and
equilibrium. He taught that the acceleration of a falling body depends upon its
mass.
This fallacious potion was accepted for two thousand years. While discussing
the phenomenon of motion, he held that living beings can move themselves and inert matter cannot do so, unless caused to move by the action of some other
body already in motion. Then how to account for a falling stone? Here the
ultimate origin remains mysterious, leading him towards theological
conclusions.
In his Meteorologics*,
Aristotle treats the region between heaven and earth. He discusses meteors,
rain, hail, snow, winds, rivers, the saltiness of the sea, thunder and lightning
etc. The range of interests is impressive, though frequently the conclusions are
not valid.
* Meteorologic refers to atmospheric phenomena. And weather and weather conditions related.
* Meteorologic refers to atmospheric phenomena. And weather and weather conditions related.
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science