How did science and medicine serve the needs of Hellenistic society?

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Physician with Young PatientThis plaster cast from ca. 350 B.C.E. shows a physician examining a child, while Asclepius, the god of healing, observes. Asclepius holds a staff with a snake coiled around it, which remains the symbol of medicine today. This cast was made through a process known as intaglio, in which the picture was carved onto a cylinder-shaped gemstone, then rolled across wet clay to produce the image. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)> PICTURING THE PASTANALYZING THE IMAGE: How is the physician diagnosing the health or illness of the child?
CONNECTIONS: Given what you have read about Hellenistic medicine, why might the artist have included the god Ascelpius in this scene?

IIN THE SCHOLARLY REALM, Hellenistic thinkers made advances in mathematics, astronomy, and mechanical design. Physicians used observation and dissection to better understand the way the human body works and to develop treatments for disease. Many of these developments occurred in Alexandria, where the Ptolemies did much to make the city an intellectual, cultural, and scientific center.