Galen
| Galen | |
 | |
| Nickname (s) | ( Greek ), Claudius Galenus ( Latin ) |
|---|---|
| Birth | to 130 Pergamum ( Turkey ) |
| Deaths | 201 or 216 |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation (s) | doctor |
Galen (in ancient Greek / in Latin born in Pergamum in 129 or 131 , and died in 201 or 216 , is a physician of Greek antiquity. Considered one of the fathers of the pharmacy, he had a lasting influence on medicine Christian , Jewish and Muslim from the Middle Ages.
His theories have dominated the medical knowledge of Western civilization for over a millennium. The forename "Claudius", which is absent in Greek texts, was mentioned for the first time in the texts of the Renaissance , it was perhaps a misinterpretation of the abbreviation "Cl" which meant clarissimus.
Summary |
Biography
Born in Pergamum in Mysia (now Bergama in Turkey ) in a wealthy (his father Nicon is architect and Senator ) he began studying philosophy and mathematics and also deals with many other disciplines, agriculture , architecture , astronomy , astrology , but his father, after receiving a dream visit from Asclepius, directs studies in medical , it starts at 17.
At the age of twenty years, he served for four years at the temple of the god Asclepius as a therapist (assistant or associate). Galen would have liked to study anatomy, but the dissection of human corpses was forbidden by Roman law , failing that, he worked on pigs, monkeys and other animals. Legal restrictions imposed upon him, led him to design a fair number of misconceptions about anatomy. For example, he thinks that a network of blood vessels at the back of the brain, the rete mirabile , exists in humans, but in reality it is only found in animals. After the death of his father in 148 or 149 , he left Pergamum where the largest school of medicine at the time to study at Smyrna , Corinth and Alexandria during the twelve years that follow. In 157 Galen returned to his hometown, where he worked for three or four years as a medical school of gladiators. During this period he gained extensive experience in the treatment of injuries including wounds , which he described as "windows on the body" and used it to improve his knowledge of anatomy.
Galen performed many audacious operations - up to discuss the brain surgery and the eyes - areas that have more then been no attempt, for nearly two millennia. To make a cataract , he used to only instrument he inserted a large needle into the eye behind the lens , and then he withdrew the instrument lightly to remove the cataract. The slightest slip could then cause blindness irreversible.
Galen moved to Rome in 162. There he lectured, wrote extensively, and conducted public demonstrations of his knowledge of anatomy and physiology, two disciplines which he thinks they are the foundation of good medicine. He quickly acquired a reputation as a doctor with experience and a large clientele of notables competed in her care. Among them is the consular Boethus Flavius , who introduced him to the imperial court, where he became physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It also faces the very serious epidemic called Antonine plague raging in the capital from 166.
Very jealous, because few modest and critic, he must leave Rome around 167. He returned two years later at the request of Marcus Aurelius (for unknown reasons). He became court physician and undertakes to treat both the emperor's son. On the death of Marcus Aurelius, he became, until his own death in 201, the physician of the emperor Commodus. It also treats Romans celebrated as Lucius Verus and Septimius Severus. Although deemed a member of the court, Galen sulked Latin, preferring to speak and write in the language of his native Greek, a language which was then one of the elite in Rome.
However, 166 Galen returned to Pergamum, where he lived until his final return to Rome in 169.
Galen spent the rest of his life in the Roman imperial court, where he was allowed to write and experiment. He practiced experiments on numerous animals to study the function of kidneys and spinal cord. His favorite subject of study was the macaque.
It was reported that Galen employed twenty scribes to transcribe his words. In 191 , a fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed some of those documents. Due to a reference lexicon of Souda , the tenth century , the year of death of Galen was traditionally located around the year 200. However, some researchers argue that it is prepared by a text that Galen wrote until 207 and they argue that the famous doctor had lived longer, last year proposed being 216 Work Galen was undoubtedly one of the founders of medicine and pharmacy. It is above all a great teacher and writer. It leaves no fewer than 500 books, he took pains to direct himself in his books On ( / Peri tn Idion) and on the order of his works ( / Peri tes taxes tn Idion biblion). He struggled to build an encyclopedia of science of his time, putting themselves above the school: "I would call those who call themselves slaves or Hippocratic praxagorens or claim to any authority, but I chose this that He was good in every school. " Only a small part of his work has spanned the centuries: This is mainly due to the fire, 192 , Temple of Peace, built by Vespasian , where Galen gave his lectures. Many of the remaining works were preserved by Christian intellectuals ( Constantine the African , eleventh century ), Muslims (especially Averroes , XII century ) and Jews. Translation 830 - 870 of 129 works of Galen in Arabic by Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his assistants, especially his insistence on systematic and rational approach to medicine made by Galen, established the model of Islamic medicine , which quickly spread throughout the Arab empire. Galen Arabs held in great esteem . However, they rarely practiced surgery invasive. As Western Christians, they have abolished the surgery both as knowledge and as practice: this technique was pagan, and they'll actually do sin . As its title suggests, Doubts about Galen a book of Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes) ( 925 ) clearly shows, as well as the writings of Ibn Nafis , the works of Galen were not admitted without discussion, but used as a baseline to guide further studies. The emphasis on experimentation and empiricism led to new results and new observations, which were verified and added to those of Galen by writers such as Razi, Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas) , Abu al-Qasim (Abulasis), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), and Ibn al-Nafis. Constantine the African was instrumental in reintroducing the medicine of ancient Greece in the European Christian. His translations of Hippocrates and Galen were the first to give the Western world an overview of Greek medicine . Later, in medieval Europe, the writings of Galen on the anatomy became the model of the university curriculum of the medieval physician, but they suffered a lot of inertia and intellectual stagnation. In the 1530s, however, a Belgian anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius set about a project to translate many of Galen's Greek texts into Latin. The most famous work of Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica , was greatly influenced by the writings and works of Galen. Seeking to revive the methods and research of Galen, Vesalius turned to the dissection of human corpses as a natural evolution of the philosophy of Galen. Galen's writings have gained a renewed topicality in the hands of Vesalius, who introduced Galen through his books and practical demonstrations. Like most of the writings of Galen were also translated into Arabic, the Middle East knows and reveres him as Jalinos . In medical matters, Galen was inspired to Hippocrates but also to Aristotle. He studied extensively the anatomy, physiology , the hygiene and pharmacology (still spoken of as "dosage"), but also the philosophy ("the best doctor is also a philosopher") and philology : he owes a Introduction to the dialectic, a treatise demonstrating and comment on the Timaeus of Plato. Considered the founder of the pharmacy, the oath of apothecaries dating from 1608 was renamed Oath of Galen in the twentieth century. This oath like the Hippocratic oath enacts the professional duties of pharmacists. This oath is still sworn by doctors of pharmacy at the end of their studies. Galen identified the blood of the veins (dark red) and that of arterial (brighter and thinner), each with separate functions and separate. He thought that the venous blood had its origin in the liver and arterial blood in the heart and the blood was coming out of these bodies to irrigate all parts of the body where it is consumed. Galen's emphasis on bloodletting as a remedy for practically any disease has retained an influence on western medicine until the nineteenth century. He is the author of numerous works on the nervous system (including the path of the nerve impulse), the myology , hygiene (De hygiene) or the dietary (food properties). For him (as in Chinese medicine ), human physiology is based on four elements ( air , earth , fire , water ) that influence the four humors that are the bile, blood, phlegm and black bile (atrabile or melancholy). Of these four humors caused the four temperaments: the choleric, sanguine, the phlegmatic or lymphatic and splenetic and melancholy. The disease results from the imbalance between these elements. 
Notes
See also
The literature
Bibliography
External Links
Works by Galen
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