me, probably in an official position, and practised medicine
successfully until a very old age. He was probably eighty years of age
when, some time during the first decade of the seventh century, he died.

Puschmann, who has made a special study of Alexander's life and work,
suggests that since some of his books have the form of academic lectures
he was probably a teacher of medicine at Rome. As might be expected from
what we know of the relations of the rest of the family to the nobility
of the time, it is easy to understand, especially in connection with
hints in Alexander's favorite modes of therapeutics, that costliness of
remedies made no difference to his patients, that he must have had the
treatment of some of the wealthiest families in Rome.

His principal work is a Treatise on the Pathology and Therapeutics of
Internal Diseases, in twelve books. The first eleven books were
evidently material gathered for lectures or teaching of some kind. The
twelfth book, in which considerable use of Aetius' writings is made, was
written, according to Puschmann, toward the end of Alexander's life, and
was meant to contain supplementary matter, comprising especially his
views gathered from observation as to the pathology of internal
diseases. A shorter treatise of Alexander is with regard to intestinal
parasites. There are many printed editions of these books, and many
manuscript copies are in existence. Alexander was often quoted during
the Middle Ages, and in recent years, with the growth of our knowledge
of medical history, he has come to be a favorite subject of study.

Alexander's first book of pathology and therapeutics treats of head and
brain diseases. For baldness, the first symptom of which is falling out
of the hair, he counsels cutting the hair short, washing the scalp
vigorously, and the rubbing in of sulphur ointments. For grey hair he
suggests certain hair dyes, as nutgalls, red wine, and so forth. For
dandruff, which he described as the excessive formation of small
flake-like scales, he recommends rubbing with wine, with certain salves,
and washing with salt water.

He gives a good deal of attention to diseases of the nervous system. He
has a rather interesting chapter on headache. The affection occurs in
connection with fevers, after excess in drinking, and as a consequence
of injury to the skull. Besides, it develops as a result of disturbances
of the natural processes in the head, the stomach, the liver, an