Philistion of Locri () was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, medical and dietary author who lived in the 4th century BC. He was a native of

Locri Locri is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. Its name derives from that of the ancient Greek region of Locris. Today it is an important administrative and cultural center on the Ion ...

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, but was also referred to as "the Sicilian." He was tutor to the physician Chrysippus of Cnidos, and the astronomer and physician Eudoxus, and therefore must have lived in the 4th century BC. He was one of those who defended the opinion that what is drunk goes into the

lungs The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory syste ...

. Some ancient writers attributed to Philistion the treatise ''De Salubri Victus Ratione'', and also the ''De Victus Ratione'', both of which form part of the Hippocratic collection. By some persons he was considered one of the founders of the

Empiric school The Empiric school of medicine (''Empirics'', ''Empiricists'', or ''Empirici'', ) was a school of medicine founded in Alexandria the middle of the third century BC.Heinrich von Staden, ''Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria: Edition, ...

. He wrote a work on ''materia medica'', and on ''Cookery'', and is several times quoted by Pliny, and

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

. Oribasius attributes to him the invention of a machine for restoring

dislocations In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...

of the

humerus The humerus (; : humeri) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius (bone), radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extrem ...

. A brother of Philistion, who was also a physician, but whose name is not known, is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus. Caelius Aurelianus, ''De Morb. Chron.'', iii. 8, v. 1

Notes

{{Authority control 4th-century BC Greek physicians Epizephyrian Locrians