ALEXANDER, a Greek writer on physic, a native of Tralles in Lydia, who lived about the middle of the fifth century. His works are divided into 12 books; in which he treats of distempers as they occur, from head to foot. He was the first who opened the jugular vein, and that used cantharides as a blister for the gout. Dr Freind, in his History of Physic, styles him one of the most valuable authors since the time of Hippocrates. Though he appears on the whole to have been a rational physician, yet there are things in his writings that favour of enthusiasm and superstition.