The Influence Of Galen Visionary Medicine

Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic supportive lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. Herophilus of Chalcedon, working at the medical school of Alexandria placed intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. He and his

The 18th Century was a period where teachings of Aristotle were prominent. Herbal medicine and therapeutic techniques was the primary medical treatment. During this period society had no know knowledge of bacteria, germs, viruses, or any known sanitation methods. Primary methods of medical administration included blistering , bloodletting, clysters (known as enemas), diet changes, and cold bathing.

Today, as we know it, medicine is getting more and more advanced., but don’t you sometimes wonder who started the development of medicine? Let’s travel way back in time, to the island of Cos, in ancient Greece, around 460 BCE, the famous greek physician, Hippocrates was born. He was not known of much by historians, but Hippocrates had introduced the ways of western medicine, and that is how he became a famous physician, and shaped the medical ways of the modern west. Through this report, you will be introduced to his childhood and how he was the first person in ancient Greece to realize that all illnesses came naturally and was not caused by the gods and goddesses.

Galen believed in humoral medicine, but then he incorporated more insight to it besides the basic concept of the four humors. He built on the concept of the four humors and included the six non-naturals: food and drink, sleep, evacuations of the body, air, mental state (Lecture, 9/18/17).

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

It hasn’t changed that the average person doesn’t like to feel pain or be ill. The evolution of medicine from 1776 to 1938 in the United States depended on the knowledge of current diseases and treatment at that time. The major diseases during this time were pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal infections, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease.1 Ironically, much of those diseases still exist today. Over time, the world’s demand for drugs for any type of illness or disease drastically skyrocketed. Was the medicine really working or were people psyched into believing they had an illness? The diagnosis and treatment was incorrect many times, resulting in “shoulda, coulda, and wouldas” when dealing with diagnosis and medicine. Without a scientific basis, medical doctors, such as Benjamin Rush were ineffective with proper treatment, and quacks promoted strange treatments as to say: Yackedy Quack, Don’t Talk Back. By the end of the 20th Century, one could say American medicine was on the rise and researchers and physician were much more respected.

Before the 18th century, medicine had not advanced beyond the practices of bloodletting and balancing the four humors of the body. These medical practices were not effective and did more harm than good. It was not until the Scientific Revolution that physicians slowly started to learn more about the human body and how functions. The numerous advancements of medicine in the 18th century and resulting benefits to European Society are reflected in the lack of medical practices before the 1700s, the creation of the smallpox vaccine, and improved techniques.

Shakespeare, self proclaimed poet and renowned playwright, lived in the age of the Renaissance. More specifically, the time at which the Tudor family ruled England, during these times, there were deep-rooted religious cleansings and ongoing witch hunts, that sought out anyone and everyone that did not follow suit. Shakespeare (1564-1616A.D.) was born in, and lived through the medical renaissance, which was the point between 1400 and 1700A.D. that innovated the medicines used in Europe. These treatments were eventually diffused throughout the world. The most typical consensus made by medical technicians of the time believed in the body to be maintained up by a balance of bodily humors (liquids), though during the mid 1500s new methods of

Galen was a Greek, who was born in Pergamum in AD 129. He was firstly

Galen’s writings have had a great influence in the evolution of medicine. From western medicine all the way to the beginning of modern medicine, Galen is referenced in some way. Throughout medical history, Galen’s writings were either agreed with or rejected, either way Galen helps shape what we know today. Galen was a very famous because of is medical journals, and because all of his writings made it throughout many centuries other medical professionals were able to learn and expand on what Galen discovered. Galen was interested in blood, and was convinced that by making a person bleed out, not to death, would rid them of sicknesses.

Starting soon after the achievements of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, in 460 BC Greek medicine and treatments began to intensely develop and improve due to anatomical research. Ancient physicians and anatomists such as Erasistratus, Herophilus, Galen, and Andreas Vesalius conducted dissections on live and dead organisms to lead them to make important discoveries about the anatomy, functionality, and overall health of humans. With passing time, each person built off of their influences work by testing validity, expanding on research, and all the meanwhile making their own discovers. However, human dissection and vivisection experiments were limited due to conflicts with ethnics and the ways of the Catholic Church. There was also the

He moved to Rome and became a famous doctor to the Roman Emperor. There he wrote over 60 works on medical practice which became the accepted textbooks on medicine during that time period. Galen’s ideas and methods were very useful, but he also made many mistakes. Though he dissected some human bodies many of his ideas on human anatomy were based on dissections of various

Galen succeeded Hippocrates 600 years later. He was a physician and anatomist that served as the court physician o the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius. He wrote a seventeen-book treatise called De usu partium (On the Usefulness of the Parts) where he describes his theory on the structure of the human body. His sources were three and are as follows: from observations of past physicians, his experience as a surgeon for the gladiators, and his personal investigation by dissecting small apes, pigs, cattle, goats, and maybe even humans (if this was the case, then he must have done it secretly for human dissections were illegal in the Roman Empire).

In the 16th century, Vesalius decided that he would state his opinion on Galen and his own research in his book titled On the Fabric of the Human Body . However, his opinion was not quite what you would expect from someone in and before that time period, his opinion was negative toward Galen’s thoughts and writings . Vesalius did a lot of his own research in order to produce this book and to teach people what he thought about Galen’s work and compared it to the experiments he had done . This paper will look at Vesalius’ comments on Galen, why he felt like he needed to get his opinion out there and how his opinion changed the way everyone else thought.

As The Greek empire declined, Rome inherited its medical traditions and knowledge. During the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D health standards dropped considerably and outbreaks occurred of life threatening diseases. Galen of Pergamon, a follower of Hippocrates, gathered much of the medical knowledge of the time and added to it his studies of anatomy and physiology (mostly of animals). In Spite of his errors in describing certain anatomical and physiology phenomena, his writing created the foundation for medicine over 1500 years later in Europe. Though Galen created a historical event, he indeed followed and admired one of the