Aegimus

For the mythological ancestor of the Dorians, see Aegimius.

Aegimus or Aegimius (Gr. Αίγιμος or Αιγίμιος) was one of the most ancient of the Greek physicians, who is said by Galen to have been the first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse.[1] He was a native of Velia in Lucania, and is supposed to have lived before the time of Hippocrates, that is, in the 5th century BC. His work was entitled Περί Παλμων (Lat. De Palpitationibus, a name which alone sufficiently indicates its antiquity), which is no longer extant. Callimachus mentions an author named "Aegimius", who wrote a work on the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοπουκόν σύγγραμμα),[2] and Pliny the Elder mentions a person of the same name who was said to have lived two hundred years;[3] but whether these are the same or different individuals is quite uncertain.[4]

References

  1. ^ Galen, De Differ. Puls. i. 2, iv. 2. 11. vol. viii. pp. 498, 716, 752
  2. ^ Callimachus, ap. Athen, xiv. p. 643, e
  3. ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia vii. 49
  4. ^ Greenhill, William Alexander (1867), "Aegimus", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 26, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0035.html 

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).