a sanguinary struggle began, in the course of which Galen was severely wounded. Having neglected the wound, he was attacked by a malignant fever, which carried him off ten days after the battle, March 25, 1653. Among the Dutch, Jan van Galen, though not a native of the country, is still held in high honour, his memory being celebrated in numerous songs and tales of the sea.—F. M.
GALENUS, Claudius (in English Galen, in French Galien), one of the most eminent physicians of any age or country, was born at Pergamus in Asia Minor in 130. His father was an architect and geometrician, named Nicon, who is mentioned in several places of his son's writings in terms of great affection and respect; and who seems to have been a man of good property, and to have spared no expense in procuring the best possible education for his son. Galen was originally intended for a philosopher, but changed his profession before his father's death; and after that event, which took place when he was about twenty years old, he continued for some years to prosecute his medical studies with great assiduity, visiting various foreign cities for the purpose of attending the lectures of the most eminent professors then living. On his return to his own country in 158, he was appointed physician to a school of gladiators, an honourable post, which he retained, probably, for a few years. In his thirty-fourth year he went to Rome, where he remained about four years, and where he gained great celebrity both by his professional skill, and also by his frequent discussions (amounting in fact to personal disputes) with his medical brethren. We can easily conceive that Galen was infinitely superior to his professional adversaries, and that this very superiority may have excited their envy and ill-will against him; but still we must in fairness admit that the violence and bitterness of his language is at times perfectly indefensible. He is by some persons supposed to have fled from Rome on account of the pestilence which broke out in that capital in 167. He certainly left the city about that time, but he had been wishing to do so for some months before, and there is no reason for thinking that his departure was hastened by any unworthy fear of personal danger. He had hardly reached his own country before he was summoned by the emperors, M. Aurelius and L. Verus, to attend them in one of their northern campaigns; and after the death of Verus he again passed some years in Rome as physician to the imperial family. Of the events of the rest of his life, which lasted thirty or forty years longer, few particulars are known; and both the place and date of his death are uncertain. His personal character may be gathered from his works; and notwithstanding his excessive laudation of himself, and his controversial bitterness, there appears to have been much in him that was truly admirable. The extent and variety of his intellectual acquirements was very great; and he was not only beyond all comparison the most eminent physician of his age, but also a learned and accomplished man, well acquainted with various branches of philosophy. The deep religious feeling that appears in various parts of his writings is very remarkable. His principal physiological work, entitled "De Usu Partium Corporis Humani," may be almost considered as a treatise on natural theology, or as he himself expresses it, as a sacred discourse, composed as a true hymn in honour of the Creator; "for this," "he adds," would in my opinion be real piety, not if I were to offer sacrifices and burn incense in his honour, but if I were first to comprehend myself, and then to make known to others, his character for wisdom, power, and goodness" (lib. iii. cap. 10, tom. iii. p. 237, ed. Kühn).
Galen's writings were very numerous, amounting to about five hundred treatises on medical science, logic, ethics, grammar, and other branches of philosophy. Most of these have been lost, but about one hundred and fifty are still extant and have been published; and more than fifty others are supposed to be lying unknown or unnoticed in different European libraries. Some of these works are of considerable length, and were written with great and elaborate attention, while others consist only of a few pages hastily thrown off with some mere temporary object. It will be manifestly impossible to mention them all in this place; a complete list of them will be found in some of the works named at the end of this article. All that can be attempted here will be to notice some of the most important of his writings, distributed under different heads, according to their subject matter:—
I. Works on anatomy and physiology.—His principal anatomical work is entitled "De Anatomicis Administrationibus," and consists of fifteen books, of which only eight complete books are extant in Greek. There is an Arabic translation of the whole work in the Bodleian library at Oxford, which, as far as is at present known, is not to be found elsewhere in Europe. His principal physiological work is the treatise "De usu Partium Corporis Humani," in seventeen books, mentioned above. Galen's fame among his contemporaries and successors did not rest especially on his anatomical and physiological works; but these are perhaps the most interesting of his writings, especially when the amount of his knowledge on these points is compared with that of his predecessors. His knowledge was derived from careful and frequent dissection of apes, bears, goats, and other animals. He probably dissected human bodies also; as he states that those physicians who attended the Emperor M. Aurelius in his German wars, had an opportunity of dissecting the bodies of the barbarians (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. iii. 2. vol. viii. p. 604); but the way in which this circumstance is mentioned proves that it was considered as something extraordinary. It should also be added that he occasionally falls into anatomical errors, which are quite inconsistent with the idea of his having ordinarily or frequently practised human dissection.
II. Of his works on dietetics and hygiene, the principal is the "De Sanitate Tuendâ," in six books, which is one of his best writings, and contains many directions which are as applicable to the present day as they were to the time when they were written. The "De Alimentorum Facultatibus," in three books, contains a detailed account of the properties of different articles of food, which was copied with more or less exactness by most subsequent writers on the subject for many centuries.
III. The most valuable of his pathological works is the "De Locis Affectis," in six books, if indeed this should not rather be classed under the following head. His pathology is founded on the theory of the four humours, blood, phlegm, bile, and atrabile; and the four elements air, fire, earth, and water, representing respectively the qualities of cold, hot, dry, and moist; in the application of which doctrine he introduced numerous refinements and speculations, which in later ages led to unprofitable discussions, rather than to the advancement of medical science.
IV. Of his works on diagnosis and semeiology, which are numerous, the following are the most important—"De Criticis Diebus," and "De Crisibus," each in three books; "De Differentia Morborum," "De Morborum Causis," "De Symptomatum Differentiâ," and "De Causis Symptomatum," in three books—these are intimately connected, and may be considered to form parts of one large work; his elaborate series of works on the pulse, entitled "De Pulsibus, ad Tirones," "De Differentiâ Pulsuum," "De Dignoscendis Pulsibus," "De Causis Pulsuum," "De Præsagitione ex Pulsibus—each of the last four consisting of four books; and the "Synopsis Librorum suorum de Pulsibus." His skill in forming a correct opinion of the nature of diseases, and in predicting the result in each case, was so great, that he ventured to assert that, by the assistance of the Deity, he had never been mistaken.—(Comment. in Hippocr. Epid. I. ii. 20, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 383.) He had such confidence in the doctrine of critical days, that he considered a proper observance of them would enable a physician to foretell the very hour of the termination of a fever. His minute and subtle enumeration of the different kinds of pulse shows the value he put upon it as a basis of diagnosis and prognosis, but is far too complicated to be explained here.
V. Some of his most voluminous works relate to pharmacy and materia medica. Of these the most important are—"De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis et Facultatibus," in eleven books; "De Compositione Medicamentorum secundum locos," in ten books; "De Compositione Medicamentorum secundum Genera," in seven books, which may be considered to form, with the preceding, one large work. This section of Galen's works is perhaps one of the least interesting, as it is certainly one of the least original; and in this respect it is inferior to the works of Dioscorides on the same subject. Great part of the medical formulæ and of the account of different drugs, &c., is extracted from the works of previous writers.
VI. Of his works on therapeutics, including surgery, the longest and most important is the "Methodus Medendi," in fourteen books, composed at an advanced period of his life. A much shorter treatise, called "Ars Medica," was commonly used as a text-book in the middle ages, and was perhaps the most popular of all his writings, under the names of "Ars Parva," "Microtechni," "Tegne," &c. We may also mention his two
