Galen

For other uses, see Galen (disambiguation).
Galen
Κλαύδιος Γαληνός
An 18th-century engraving by Georg P. Busch[1]
BornAD 129
Pergamon, Asia Minor
(now Bergama, Turkey)
Diedc. AD 216 (aged c. 87)
Unknown
Scientific career
FieldsAnatomy
Medicine
Philosophy

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus[2] (Greek: Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. 216 AD), often anglicized as Galen (/ˈɡeɪlən/) or Galen of Pergamon,[3] was a Roman and Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher.[4][5][6] Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy,[7] physiology, pathology,[8] pharmacology,[9] and neurology, as well as philosophy[10] and logic.

The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy Greek architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. Born in the ancient city of Pergamon (present-day Bergama, Turkey), Galen traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.

Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of the four humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm, as first advanced by the author of On the Nature of Man in the Hippocratic corpus.[11] Galen's views dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical reports were based mainly on the dissection of Barbary apes.[12] However, when he discovered that their facial expressions were too much like those of humans, he switched to other animals, such as pigs. While dissections and vivisections on humans were practised in Alexandria at this time, Galen did not have Imperial permission to perform his own, and had to use animals instead.[13] Galen would encourage his students to go look at dead gladiators or bodies that washed up in order to get better acquainted with the human body. His anatomical reports remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius,[14][15] where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations.[16][17] Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system remained unchallenged until c. 1242, when Ibn al-Nafis published his book Sharh tashrih al-qanun li' Ibn Sina (Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon), in which he reported his discovery of pulmonary circulation.[18]

Galen saw himself as both a physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise titled That the Best Physician Is Also a Philosopher.[19][20][21][22] Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects,[23] and his use of direct observation, dissection, and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints.[24][25][26] Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from the original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died.[27]

  1. ^ Since no contemporary depictions or descriptions of Galen are known to have existed, later artists' impressions are unlikely to have reproduced his appearance accurately.
  2. ^ S. Alexandru (2021). "Critical Remarks on Codices in which Galen Appears as a Member of the gens Claudia". Mnemosyne. 74 (4): 553–597. doi:10.1163/1568525x-12342720. S2CID 225298224.
  3. ^ "Galen" entry in Collins English Dictionary.
  4. ^ Life, death, and entertainment in the Roman Empire. David Stone Potter, D. J. Mattingly (1999). University of Michigan Press. p. 63. ISBN 0-472-08568-9
  5. ^ "Galen on bloodletting: a study of the origins, development, and validity of his opinions, with a translation of the three works". Peter Brain, Galen (1986). Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-521-32085-2
  6. ^ Nutton Vivian (1973). "The Chronology of Galen's Early Career". Classical Quarterly. 23 (1): 158–171. doi:10.1017/S0009838800036600. PMID 11624046. S2CID 35645790.
  7. ^ "Galen on the affected parts. Translation from the Greek text with explanatory notes". Med Hist. 21 (2): 212. 1977. doi:10.1017/s0025727300037935. PMC 1081972.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference brock was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Debru, Armelle (1997). Galen on Pharmacology: Philosophy, History, and Medicine : Proceedings of the Vth International Galen Colloquium, Lille, 16–18 March 1995. Brill. ISBN 978-9004104037 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Rocca, Julius (2003). "Galen on the Brain: Anatomical Knowledge and Physiological Speculation in the Second Century AD". Studies in Ancient Medicine. 26. Brill: 1–313. doi:10.1163/9789047401438. ISBN 978-90-47-40143-8. PMID 12848196.
  11. ^ Nutton, V. (2005). "The Fatal Embrace: Galen and the History of Ancient Medicine". Science in Context. 18 (1): 111–121. doi:10.1017/S0269889705000384. PMID 16075496. S2CID 10878807.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Dean-Jones, Lesley (2018). "Galen and the Culture of Dissection". In Bell, Sinclair (ed.). At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture, and Religion: Papers in Memory of Carin M. C. Green. Archaeopress Publishing. pp. 229–248. ISBN 978-1-78969-014-9.
  14. ^ Andreas Vesalius (1543). De humani corporis Fabrica, Libri VII (in Latin). Basel, Switzerland: Johannes Oporinus. Archived from the original on 1 September 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  15. ^ O'Malley, C., Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564, Berkeley: University of California Press
  16. ^ Siraisi, Nancy G., (1991) Girolamo Cardano and the Art of Medical Narrative, Journal of the History of Ideas. pp. 587–88.
  17. ^ Bigotti, Fabrizio (2019). Physiology of the Soul. Mind, Body and Matter in the Galenic Tradition of the Late Renaissance (1550-1630). Brepols. pp. 21–40. ISBN 978-2-503-58161-3.
  18. ^ West, John (1985). "Ibn al-Nafis, the pulmonary circulation, and the Islamic Golden Age". Journal of Applied Physiology. 105 (6): 1877–1880. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.91171.2008. PMC 2612469. PMID 18845773.
  19. ^ Claudii Galeni Pergameni (1992). Odysseas Hatzopoulos (ed.). "That the best physician is also a philosopher" with a Modern Greek Translation. Athens, Greece: Odysseas Hatzopoulos & Company: Kaktos Editions.
  20. ^ Theodore J. Drizis (Fall 2008). "Medical ethics in a writing of Galen". Acta Med Hist Adriat. 6 (2): 333–336. PMID 20102254. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  21. ^ Brian, P., 1977, "Galen on the ideal of the physician", South Africa Medical Journal, 52: 936–938 pdf
  22. ^ Bigotti, Fabrizio (2019). Physiology of the Soul: Mind, Body and Matter in the Galenic Tradition of Late Renaissance (1550-1630). Brepols. ISBN 978-2-503-58161-3.
  23. ^ Frede, M. and R. Walzer, 1985, Three Treatises on the Nature of Science, Indianapolis: Hacket.
  24. ^ De Lacy P (1972). "Galen's Platonism". American Journal of Philology. 1972 (1): 27–39. doi:10.2307/292898. JSTOR 292898.
  25. ^ Cosans C (1997). "Galen's Critique of Rationalist and Empiricist Anatomy". Journal of the History of Biology. 30 (1): 35–54. doi:10.1023/a:1004266427468. PMID 11618979. S2CID 35323972.
  26. ^ Cosans C (1998). "The Experimental Foundations of Galen's Teleology". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 29 (1): 63–80. Bibcode:1998SHPSA..29...63C. doi:10.1016/s0039-3681(96)00005-2.
  27. ^ Todman, D. (2007). "Galen (129–199)". Journal of Neurology. 254 (7): 975–976. doi:10.1007/s00415-007-0625-5. PMID 17676358. S2CID 33437522.