Diocles of Carystus (375 - 295 BC) was a celebrated Greek physician. Not much is known of his life, other that he lived and worked in Athens, where he wrote what may be the first medical treatise in Attic (not in Ionic as was customary in Greek medical writings). His most important work was in practical medicine, especially diet and nutrition. He belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatici, and wrote several medical works, of which only the titles and some fragments remain, preserved by Galen, Caelius Aurelianus, Oribasius, Athenaeus, and others. Diocles insisted that health requires an understanding of the nature of the universe and its relationship to man. He emphasized that nerves are the channels of sensations and that interference with them is directly involved in the pathology of disease. He was the inventor of a surgical instrument for the extraction of weapons or missiles that were embedded into the body, called Dioclean cyathiscus (Spoon of Diocles). Undated etching. This image has been color-enhanced.