The School of Croton

Croton city prospered from Mediterranean commerce, especially between Greece and the coastal areas of Gaul and Spain. Croton was famous for her medical school and for the successes of her athletes.

There is no definite knowledge of when the medical school of Croton was established (probably existed before Pythagoras), in any case, its history is intertwined with that of Pythagoras and his school and two institutions made Croton the important Greek intellectual center in Italy. Of all early philosophical schools that of Pythagoras probably exerted the deepest influence upon medicine.

Pythagoras

In Croton, Pythagoras organized his followers into a well disciplined school, and scone medical school developed at about the same time, Croton became the first and a very important Greek intellectual.

According to Pythagoras, the soul is divided into three parts, intelligence reason and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals as well, but reason by man alone. The seat of the soul extends from the heart to the brain, the part of it which in the heart is passion, while the parts located in the brain are reason and intelligence.

One of the famous students graduated from this school was Alcmaeon of Croton. He was a student of anatomy and one of the first to perform dissection.
The School of Croton

Alcmaeon of Croton

By the middle of the fifth century BC there were three major centers Greek medical science: Croton (southern Italy), Agrigentum south coast Sicily) and Cos (island of Turkey).

The oldest of these medical centers was in Croton, and is most famous member was Alcmaeon.

Alcmaeon of Croton is the most important figure in the history of Greek medicine before Hippocrates. He was a Greek natural philosopher and physician significant for his theory of health and disease and for his investigations into the nature of the sense organs.

He was born in 510 BC and was a disciple of Pythagoras.

According to Chalcidius, Alcmaeon of Croton practices dissection and is said to have been the first man to make dissections. He was also the first to study the structure of the eye. He observed that the eye contained water. He also concluded that the eye contained light and that this light was necessary for vision

Alcmaeon of Croton was the first writer to champion the brain as the site of sensation and cognition.

He rejected earlier conceptions of disease as something possessing a separate existence of its own. He maintained that disease is due to the disturbance of the body’s natural equilibrium.
Alcmaeon of Croton