I of Dannemann's history.( 31) (31) Friedrich Dannemann: Grundriss einer Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Vol.

I, 3d ed., Leipzig, 1908.
Of special interest to us in Alexandria is the growth of the first great medical school of antiquity.

Could we have visited the famous museum about 300 B.C., we should have found a medical school in full operation, with extensive laboratories, libraries and clinics.

Here for the first time the study of the structure of the human body reached its full development, till then barred everywhere by religious prejudice; but full permission was given by the Ptolemies to perform human dissection and, if we may credit some authors, even vivisection.

The original writings of the chief men of this school have not been preserved, but there is a possibility that any day a papyrus maybe found which will supplement the scrappy and imperfect knowledge afforded us by Pliny, Celsus and Galen.