147. When we come to details, we seem to see that what distinguished the Pythagoreanism of this period from its earlier form was that it sought to adapt itself to the new theory of “elements.” It is just this which makes it necessary for us to take up the consideration of the system once more in connexion with the pluralists. When the Pythagoreans returned to Southern Italy, they must have found views prevalent there which imperatively demanded a partial reconstruction of their own system. We do not know that Empedokles founded a philosophical society, but there can be no doubt of his influence on the medical school of these regions; and we also know now that Philolaos played a part in the history of medicine.[799] This discovery gives us the clue to the historical connexion, which formerly seemed obscure. The tradition is that the Pythagoreans explained the elements as built up of geometrical figures, a theory which we can study for ourselves in the more developed form which it attained in Plato’s _Timaeus_.[800] If they were to retain their position as the leaders of medical study in Italy, they were bound to account for the elements. Footnote 799: All this has been put in its true light by the publication of the extract from Menon’s Ἰατρικά, on which see p. 322, _n._ 742. Footnote 800: In Aet. ii. 6, 5 (R. P. 80) the theory is ascribed to Pythagoras, which is an anachronism, as the mention of “elements” shows it must be later than Empedokles. In his extract from the same source, Achilles says οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι, which doubtless represents Theophrastos better. There is a fragment of “Philolaos” bearing on the subject (R. P. 79), where the regular solids must be meant by τὰ ἐν τᾷ σφαίρᾳ σώματα.