HEROPHILUS (fl. 30o B.C.), Alexandrian anatomist, was born at Chaludon, and was one of the founders of a school of anatomy at Alexandria. Being one of the first to perform post mortem examinations, he studied the eye and cataract, traced the sinuses of the dura mater to their meeting point, still called the torcular herophili, and described the ventricles of the brain, an organ which he regarded as the centre of the nervous system. The nerve trunks he distinguished into sensory and motor branches. He also gave careful accounts of the liver, salivary glands, pancreas and the genital tracts of both sexes, and empha sized the curative powers of drugs, dietetics and gymnastics. Herophilus wrote commentaries on the works of Hippocrates, a book for midwives, and a treatise on the causes of sudden death.