Chapter IV

Unjustified claim by Erasistrateans that their founder had associations with the Peripatetic (Aristotelian) school. The characteristic physiological tenets of that school (which were all anticipated by Hippocrates) in no way agree with those of Erasistratus, save that both recognize the purposefulness of Nature; in practice, however, Erasistratus assumed numerous exceptions to this principle. Difficulty of understanding why he rejected the biological principle of attraction in favour of anatomical factors.