Aristotle

=== Hellenistic science ===
{{further | Ancient Greek medicine}}

After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly.{{sfn| Annas | 2001 | page=252}} It is not until the age of [[Alexandria]] under the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemies]] that advances in biology can be again found.

The first medical teacher at Alexandria, [[Herophilos|Herophilus of Chalcedon]], corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between [[vein]]s and [[artery|arteries]], noting that the latter [[pulse]] while the former do not.{{sfn| Mason | 1979 | p= 56}} Though a few ancient [[atomism|atomists]] such as [[Lucretius]] challenged the [[teleology|teleological]] viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life, [[teleology]] (and after the rise of Christianity, [[natural theology]]) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. [[Ernst Mayr]] states that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius and [[Galen]] until the Renaissance."{{sfn| Mayr | 1985 | pp=90–94}}