Galen

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Galen (Greek: Γαληνός, Galinos; Latin: Claudius Galenus; AD 129 –c. 216) of Pergamum was a prominent ancient Greek physician, whose theories dominated medical science for over 1300 years. The forename "Claudius" is absent in Greek texts; it was first documented in texts from the Renaissance.

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[edit] Life

Galen was born in the Greek city of Pergamum (modern-day Bergama, Turkey), the son of Nicon, a wealthy architect. His interests were eclectic—agriculture, architecture, astronomy, astrology, philosophy—until he finally concentrated on medicine.

By the age of twenty, he had become a therapeutes ("attendant" or "associate") of the god Asclepius in the local temple for four years. After his father's death in 148 or 149, he left to study in Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria over a period of twelve years. When he returned to Pergamum in 157, he worked as a physician in a gladiator school for three or four years. During this time he gained much experience of trauma and wound treatment. He later regarded wounds as "windows into the body".

Galen performed many audacious operations that were not again used for almost two millennia, including brain and eye surgery. To perform cataract surgery, Galen would insert a long needle-like instrument into the eye behind the lens, which he then pulled back slightly to remove the cataract (the slightest slip could cause permanent blindness).

In 162, he moved to Rome where he wrote extensively, lectured and publicly demonstrated his knowledge of anatomy. He gained a reputation as an experienced physician and his practice had a widespread clientèle. One of them was the consul Flavius Boethius who introduced him to the Imperial court where he became a court physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Later he also treated Lucius Verus, Commodus and Septimius Severus. Reputedly, he spoke and wrote in his native Greek, which was popular in the city of Rome. He briefly returned to Pergamum during 166-169.

Galen spent the rest of his life in the Imperial court, writing and experimenting. He performed vivisections of numerous animals to study the function of the kidneys and the spinal cord. His favourite subject was the Barbary ape. It has been reported that he employed twenty scribes to write down his words. In 191, fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed some of his records. His exact date of death has traditionally been placed around the year 200, based on a reference from the 10th century Suda lexicon. Some, however, have argued for dates as late as 216, on the basis that his last writings seem to be as late as 207.

[edit] Legacy

Galen's writings on anatomy were the mainstay of the Medieval University's physician's curriculum. In the 1530s, Belgian anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius took on a project to translate many of Galen's Greek texts into Latin. Vesalius's most famous work, De Fabrica was greatly influenced by Galenic writing and form. Vesalius sought to revive Galen's methods of dissection and natural philosophy. He saw hands-on human cadaver dissection, which up to that time had not been done, as an evolution of Galen's natural philosophy. While Galen's philosophy was stagnant and unchanging in the Medieval University, Vesalius promoted and revived Galen and expounded on his teachings by using print methods with books, and hands-on demonstrations.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700, by Peter Dear. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. 2001. pp.37-39

[edit] See also


[edit] External links

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