The message about Claudius Galen, a Roman philosopher, physician and surgeon of Greek origin, is set out in this article.
Claudius Galen short biography
The great physician and surgeon (the years of life of Claudius Galen 129 or 131 years - about 200 or 217 years) was the son of a wealthy architect who gave his son a good education, the opportunity to travel a lot. After the death of his father, he studied in Corinth, Smyrna, Crete, Cyprus, Cilicia and Alexandria.
Having thoroughly studied the art of medicine, he returns to Pergamon and treats gladiators. He reached the peak of his popularity as a doctor in Rome, where Galen later moved. His career has been very successful. But for unknown reasons, the doctor abruptly sells his property and again returns to Pergamum.
Two years later, Emperor Aurelius himself summons Galen to his military camp. The healer, together with his troops, returns to Rome and continues to practice medicine and science. He studied physiology and anatomy in detail, conducting experiments and experiments. Claudius Galen conducted his experiments on animals. Thanks to his perseverance and diligence, he was able to describe the structure of the human body, gave names to joints, bones and muscles. The scientist wrote a classic work called "On Parts of the Human Body", in which he outlined the world's first anatomical and physiological description of the human body. They were presented with the nervous system and the functional features of the internal organs. The doctor also noticed the similar qualities of a monkey and a person.
In old age, Claudius Galen decided to return home, where he died. In the field of medical science, he enjoyed great prestige. And even his erroneous theories were not refuted either by contemporaries or descendants until the Renaissance.
During his life he wrote many works on philosophy and medicine. Galen is the creator of the theory of blood circulation, the founder of pharmacology. He owns a description of three hundred human muscles and determined the importance of nerves in the human body.
- He owns a description of 300 human muscles.
- He was the first to prove that the spinal cord and brain are responsible for movement, sensory and mental activity. Previously, it was believed that the role is played by the heart.
- The doctor was the first to cut the spinal cord across.
- He proved that the blood moves through the arteries, and not pneuma, as previously assumed.
- More than 400 works on medicine, pharmacology and philosophy belong to his hand. But only 100 works have come down to us. The significance of Galen's treatises is enormous - he classified the collected information on pharmacy, medicine, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, accumulated by ancient scientists.
- In his works, he mentioned more than 304 plants, 60 minerals and 80 animals.
Claudius Galen: you can expand the report with data on his
GALEN Claudius
GALEN Claudius(Galenus Claudius, 129-201; according to other sources - 130-200, 131-201) - Roman physician and naturalist, classic of ancient medicine. He apparently did not bear the name Claudius. This name appeared as a result of an incorrectly deciphered title “the brightest”, “the most glorious” (Clarissimus, abbreviated as Cl.), which was printed on his works since the Middle Ages. He studied medicine and philosophy in Pergamon and Alexandria. Galen, calling himself a follower of Plato, defended many of his teleological ideas. At the same time, in assessing the actual data obtained in his research, Galen in many cases objectively took materialistic positions in philosophy and medicine. Wrote more than 400 treatises on medicine and philosophy, of which approx. 100. In his works, he summarized the experience of many generations of physicians starting with Hippocrates, systematized the main provisions of ancient medicine in the field of anatomy, physiology, understanding of the disease, therapy and prevention of diseases, and created a system of medical science. views. This system, due to its theological orientation, received the support of the church and, in a transformed form, influenced the development of medicine for almost one and a half thousand years.
Galen considered medicine as a science originating from Hippocrates and his followers, without refusing at the same time to interpret it as an art.
For the first time in history, Galen introduced an experiment into the practice of medicine, and therefore he can be considered one of the forerunners of experimental physiology. Studying the function of the lungs and the mechanism of breathing in an experiment, he found that the diaphragm and pectoral muscles expand the chest, drawing air into the lungs.
Rejecting the erroneous point of view that the brain is a gland that secretes mucus to cool the excess warmth of the heart, Galen considered it the source of movement, sensitivity, mental abilities and mental activity of a person. He described the quadrigemina, the vagus nerve with a recurrent branch, and 7 pairs of cranial nerves. He expressed the idea of dividing the nerves into motor, sensory and mixed, depending on the degree of their hardness. Cutting the spinal cord at different levels, he observed loss of motor functions and sensitivity. He was aware of the decussation of nerve fibers in the spinal cord. He described the muscles of the back, the three shells of the walls of the arteries.
Galen mistakenly assumed that the blood in the body is formed in the liver and then enters the heart; from the heart, it irrevocably leaves through the arteries to the organs of the body and is completely consumed by them. The failure of this hypothesis of Galen was proved by W. Harvey only in the 17th century.
Galen generalized the methods of processing medicinal substances and refuted the views of the followers of Hippocrates, who believed that in nature there are drugs in ready-made and therefore they do not require any processing. A number of medicines till now bears the name galenic preparations (see).
Adhering to the idealistic views of Plato about ideas as the root cause of things, as well as the teleological views of Aristotle, Galen believed that the organic expediency inherent in nature governs the vital functions of the body.
According to Galen, all organisms are made up of four constituent parts- air, water, earth and fire. AT various combinations they form the dense and liquid parts and organs of the body. In a healthy body there are four fluids (blood, mucus, yellow bile, black bile) mixed in the correct ratio. Violation of this ratio causes disease and disorder of organ functions. The causes of illness are internal and external. Of decisive importance are internal causes due to excess or spoilage of body fluids. The treatment of diseases, according to Galen, should consist in using the natural forces of the body and using means that cause an effect opposite to the disease: for example, cooling should be used against high temperature, and moisture should be used to combat dryness.
Galen also attached great importance to diet therapy and disease prevention measures.
Compositions: On the appointment of parts of the human body, trans. from ancient Greek., M., 1971.
Bibliography: Gribanov E.D. Did Galen have the name Claudius? in the book: From the history of medical, ed. V. V. Kanepa, vol. 10, p. 173, Riga, 1975; History of Medicine, ed. B. D. Petrova, p. 83, M., 1954; Kovner S. History of ancient medicine, c. 3, p. 823, Kyiv, 1888; Lunkevich V. V. From Heraclitus to Darwin, Essays on the history of biology, vol. 1, p. 130, M., 1960.
The great physician and no less great writer of Ancient Rome, Claudius Galen (Galenus - calm) was born in Pergamum1, a state located in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. The name Claudius, in all likelihood, he did not wear. It appeared as a result of an incorrectly deciphered title "the brightest", "the most glorious" (Clarissimus, abbreviated as Cl.), which was printed on his works, starting from the Middle Ages.
Galen received his initial education from his father Nikon, who gained fame as a philosopher, mathematician and architect. Galen studied philosophy from the age of 15, and from the ancient thinkers greatest influence Aristotle put it on him. Galen's father wanted to make his son a philosopher, but a dream that once visited his father, and the Romans attached great importance to them, forced Galen to take up medicine. Having chosen the specialty of a doctor, he studied medicine in detail under the guidance of Pergamum scientists: the anatomist Satiric, the pathologist Strotonikos, Aeschrion, Empiricus, Fitzianus and other prominent scientists and doctors of Pergamon.
After the death of his father, Galen undertook a journey during which he studied anatomy in Smyrna. His teacher was the famous anatomist Pelops (Pelops ous Smyrna, 100 AD), who proposed the term "aura" - the Greek word for a light breeze or breath. He believed that this breeze passes through the vessels. There, under the guidance of Albin, Galen studied philosophy. Later he went to Corinth, where he studied with the students of the famous Quintus, studying natural science and medicine. Then he traveled to Asia Minor. Finally, he ended up in the famous Alexandria, where he diligently studied anatomy with Heraklion. Here he got acquainted with the once famous medical school and the works of its prominent representatives - Herophilus and Erasistratus. By the time Galen visited Alexandria, dissection of human bodies was prohibited here. The structure and functions of organs have been studied in monkeys and other mammals. Frustrated, Galen returned to Pergamon after six years of travel.
In his native Pergamon, 29-year-old Galen was a surgeon at the gladiator school for 4 years and became famous for his art of treating wounds, dislocations and fractures. When an uprising broke out in the city in 164, the 33-year-old Galen went to Rome, where he soon became popular as an educated lecturer and experienced doctor. He became known to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, became close to the Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus, famous in Rome, and he glorified Galen, who cured him, as a skilled doctor. The Roman patrician Baetius, together with friends of Galen, insisted on opening a course of lectures on anatomy, and Galen read them in the Temple of Peace in front of an extensive audience of doctors and citizens interested in science. Among the audience were the Emperor's uncle Barbarus, the consul Lucius Severus, who later became emperor, praetors, scientists, philosophers Eudemus and Alexander from Damascus. It should be noted that Galen was always and everywhere looking for an opportunity to draw attention to himself, as a result of which he made enemies for himself, burned by the passion to get rid of a dangerous rival. Frightened by the revenge of envious people, Galen left Rome and took a trip to Italy. Then he visited Pergamum and visited Smyrna with his mentor Pelops. He explained the reason for his departure either by a noisy life in Rome, or by the hostile attitude of some doctors, but mainly by fear of the Roman plague.
At the invitation of Emperor Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius, Galen returned to Rome again through Macedonia two years later. Emperor Marcus Aurelius summoned Galen to his military camp in the city of Aquileia on the Adriatic coast. Together with the Roman troops, Galen returned to Rome. Galen refused to accompany the emperor on the German campaign. He lived in constant anxiety, changing his place of residence one after another, escaping for the most part from phantom enemies, whose intentions he clearly exaggerated. It ended with the fact that he settled in the palace of Marcus Aurelius and became his family doctor. One night he was urgently summoned to the emperor, who complained of being unwell. Doctors could not give the emperor the necessary advice and only frightened him with their diagnoses. Galen reassured the patient, advising him to drink Sabine wine infused with pepper. The next day, Galen heard from Philolaus that the author of the Meditations considered him henceforth not only "the first among physicians, but the only physician-philosopher."
Under the patronage of Marcus Aurelius, Galen was appointed the doctor of his son, the future Roman emperor Commodus (161-192), who participated in gladiator fights and was killed by court conspirators. Galen cured Faustina's son. To her words of gratitude, he replied: "Involuntarily, thanks to this, the enmity that your doctors harbor against me will intensify even more." The consciousness of his dignity in the medical art never left the proud Galen. Galen considered his worthy adversary, perhaps, the only physician Asclepiades of Bithynia (128-56 BC), who studied in Alexandria with Cleophantus and then practiced on the island of Paros, on the banks of the Hellespont, in Athens, before settling in Rome. Asklepiades rebelled against the ancient custom of the Romans: periodic cleansing with laxatives and emetics.
In Rome, Galen wrote several treatises on medicine; among them "On the appointment of parts of the human body", as well as "Anatomy". Unfortunately, most of his manuscripts perished during the fire of the Temple of Peace, when the entire Palatine Library burned down. The Temple of Peace was a kind of treasury, where the military leaders kept trophies, the rich - jewelry, and Galen - manuscripts.
By old age, Galen returned to Pergamum to continue his work on treatises on medicine in peace and quiet. Galen lived to an advanced age and died in the reign of Septimius Severus. Such, in brief, is the personality and biography of the great Galen.
Now consider his contribution to medicine. Galen with good reason can be called the creator of etiology as a science, since he systematized the doctrine of the causes of diseases of his time. He divided pathogenic factors into ingesta (superficial), circumfusa (solid, mechanical), excreta (liquid, pouring), causing growth, etc. He first pointed out that the disease develops from the impact of causative factors on the corresponding predisposing state of the patient's body. Internal disease-causing factors Galen called "preparing" the body for the development of the disease. Galen divided diseases into external and internal, their causes - into causes of immediate and remote action. He showed that anatomy and physiology are the basis of scientific diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
For the first time in the history of medicine, Galen introduced experiment into practice, and therefore he can be considered one of the forerunners of experimental physiology. Studying the function of the lungs and the mechanism of breathing in an experiment, he found that the diaphragm and pectoral muscles expand the chest, drawing air into the lungs. Galen wrote a lot about the functions of individual organs. Some of his views, such as circulation, the digestive and respiratory systems, were wrong. He described many details of the structure of the human body, gave names to some bones, joints and muscles that have been preserved in medicine to this day.
Galen introduced vivisection into medicine, experiments on animals, and for the first time developed a technique for opening the brain. Experiments were carried out on pigs, cows, etc. It should be especially emphasized that Galen never did autopsies of a human corpse, all his anatomical representations were built by analogy with the structure of the body of animals. He proceeded from the words of his idol Aristotle: “Much is unknown or doubtful in the structure of human internal organs, therefore it is necessary to study them in other animals, whose organs are similar to human ones.” Being engaged in the treatment of gladiators, Galen was able to significantly expand his anatomical knowledge, which in general sinned with many errors.
Galen was one of the first to experimentally establish the absence of pain during the dissection of the medulla. He studied the veins of the brain and described in detail the inferior vena cava that bears his name, which collects blood from the lower extremities, walls and organs of the pelvis, from the walls of the abdominal cavity, from the diaphragm, some organs of the abdominal cavity (liver, kidneys, adrenal glands), from the sex glands , spinal cord and its shells (partially).
Galen contributed to the description of the human nervous system, indicating that it is a branched trunk, each of the branches of which lives independent life. Nerves are built from the same substance as the brain. They serve sensation and movement. Galen distinguished between sensitive, "soft" nerves going to the organs, and "hard" nerves associated with muscles, through which voluntary movements are performed. He pointed to the optic nerve and found that this nerve passes into the retina of the eye.
Galen considered the brain, heart and liver to be the organs of the soul. Each of them was assigned one of the mental functions according to the division of the parts of the soul proposed by Plato: the liver - the carrier of desires, the heart - anger and courage, the brain - the mind. In the brain, the main role was assigned to the ventricles, especially the posterior one, where, according to Galen, the highest form of pneuma is produced, corresponding to reason, which is an essential feature of a person, just as locomotion (having its own “soul”, or pneuma) is typical of animals, and growth (again suggesting a special pneuma) - for plants. Galen devoted a lot of attention to the hypothetical "pneuma", which supposedly penetrates matter and animates the human body. The doctrine of temperaments was further developed by Galen. It, like that of Hippocrates, was based on the humoral concept.
Gives place to Galen and practical medicine. In his writings, a place was found for the disease of a large number of organs of the human body; eye diseases are described in detail; a number of practical tips on therapeutic exercises and recommendations on how to apply compresses, put leeches, and operate on wounds are given. He treated people with electricity, using living power plants of the inhabitants of the deep sea - fish. The treatment of migraine, according to Galen, consisted in instillation of fume juice with oil and vinegar into the nose.
Leads Galen and a number of prescriptions for powders, ointments, tinctures, extracts and pills. His recipes, in a slightly modified form, are still used and are called "galenic preparations" - medicines made by processing plant or animal raw materials and extracting active principles from it. Galenic preparations include tinctures, extracts, liniments, syrups, waters, oils, alcohols, soaps, plasters, mustard plasters. Galen developed the formula for the cold cream cosmetic product that is still used today, which consists of essential oil, wax and rose water.
Enormous in scope and influence, the teaching and literary activities of Galen, who largely determined the development of European medicine up to the Renaissance, are imbued with the leading thought about the identity of medicine and philosophy (cf. Galen's programmatic essay “On the fact that the best doctor at the same time is a philosopher "). Philosophizing in those days meant communication with people initiated into the secrets of the universe and human nature - communication combined with learning. In the Hellenistic era, the main topic of education was the art of living. Often it acquired a psychotherapeutic character: the philosopher became a confessor - a healer of the soul. The need for such healers was enormous, it was necessary to give a person the opportunity to cope with anxieties, negative emotions, fear and various, as we would now say, “stressful conditions”. The philosopher took a position similar in many respects to the role of the modern priest. He was invited to consult in the discussion of difficult moral problems.
Over 400 treatises were written by Galen, including 200 on medicine, of which about 100 treatises have survived, the rest were burned during a fire in Rome. Galen compiled a dictionary and commentary on the writings of Hippocrates. He introduced many new Greek names, clarified the meanings of old ones, revived some Hippocratic designations that were almost forgotten or incomprehensible to his contemporaries. Galen reduced the use of the word diaphragma to the single meaning "abdominal obstruction", assigned to the word ganglion, which denoted a tumor-like formation, also the anatomical meaning - "ganglion". Galen managed to make the name sternon unambiguous - the sternum. He clarified the formal and content aspects of the term anastomosis. He owns the authorship of the names thalamus - lat. thalamus (visual tubercle of the brain), phleps azygos - lat. vena azygos (unpaired vein), cremaster (muscle that lifts the testicle), peristaltic kinesis - peristalsis, etc.
The idealistic orientation of Galen's writings contributed to the transformation of his teachings into the so-called Galenism, canonized by the church and dominating medicine for many centuries. Galen occupies an absolutely exceptional place in the history of medicine. For centuries, only Galen, the creator of the humoral theory and the so-called rational medicine, was read, listened only to his authoritative opinion. His teaching reigned supreme for 14 centuries, until the Renaissance.
And then there was a brave man who dared to overturn this idol. It was Paracelsus. He was of the opinion that medicine had not made a single step forward since the time of Hippocrates, and also dared to assert that Galen had led it off the normal path of development and, moreover, pushed it back, obscuring the sober ideas of Hippocrates with the vague ideas of Plato. The authority of Galen was shaken and then overthrown, mainly after the appearance of the treatise On the Structure of the Human Body by Vesalius.
The famous scientist of the era of Ancient Rome, Claudius Galen, had versatile knowledge. From a young age, he showed a deep interest in the knowledge of man and the nature around him. Medicine and natural science of that time are associated with his brilliant works. They served as the basis for the further development of natural science and medical science.
The memory of Galen lives for centuries, and this test of time speaks eloquently of the significance of his discoveries and works that have enriched mankind.
Galen was born around 130 AD. in the city of Pergamon during the reign of the emperor Hadrian; he died about the year 200, also in the city of Pergamon. His long life, despite poor health in youth, due to the habit of abstinence. “Get up from the table slightly hungry and you will always be healthy,” he taught.
Pergamum - in the past the capital of the Pergamon kingdom of Attalides, one of the states founded by the successors of Alexander the Great in the northwestern part of Asia Minor. Pergamum was hers cultural center. In 133 BC. e. The kingdom of Pergamon became a Roman province.
The rich library of Pergamum competed in its completeness with the richest library of Alexandria and was one of its attractions. When the importation of Egyptian papyrus was restricted, parchment was invented in Pergamum, which took its name from the birth of this city.
Until our time, there is the famous Pergamon altar of Zeus with images of scenes of the struggle of the gods with giants - a popular myth in ancient Greece. The altar was built at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. This is a huge structure over 9 m high, up to 120 m long. Up to 50 figures of gods and the same number of giants have survived. This altar is kept in the special Pergamon Museum in democratic Berlin. It - interesting monument. It is described by I. S. Turgenev (Works, vol. XI, 1956). From ancient Pergamon (the city of Bergam in Turkey), only ruins have survived to this day.
Galen's father Nikon was known as a multi-talented person: an architect, mathematician, and philosopher. He sought to give his son the broadest possible education. Galen's teachers were prominent Pergamon scholars: the anatomist Satyricus, the pathologist Stratonicus, the empiricist philosopher Aeschrion, and many more scientists.
Galen diligently studied the works of Aristotle, Theophrastus and other philosophers. After the death of his father, Galen undertook a long journey. At the age of 21, he came to Smyrna and studied anatomy there with the anatomist Pelops, and studied philosophy under the guidance of Albinus. He then lived in Corinth, where he studied natural science and medicine under Numésian. He also visited Asia Minor and the famous Alexandria, where he diligently studied anatomy with the famous Heraklion.
The theoretical justifications for the medical and biological views of Galen largely rested on the teachings of the school of Hippocrates (460-356), Aristotle (384-323), Alcmaeon and scientists of the late period of the Alexandrian school.
The Alexandrian era - an important milestone in the cultural life of the ancient world - lasted from the 4th to the 2nd century BC. The city of Alexandria, built by the talented architect Dinocrates of Rhodes on the decision of Alexander the Great at the mouth of one of the branches of the Nile, was for three centuries the capital of Egypt in the Hellenistic era. In 50 years after the founding of the city, there were more than 300,000 inhabitants in it - it was one of the most populated cities of the ancient world, and by the beginning of the Christian era, about 1 million people lived in it. Its area occupied up to 100 km2. Alexandria was famous for its outstanding scientists. There lived and worked Theokritos, Demetrius of Phaler, the founder of the Museum and Library in Alexandria. The museum is a kind of scientific brotherhood with a cult of muses, where joint work of scientists was practiced. This example of combining the scientific creativity of scientists was taken from Aristotle and Theophrastus. Scientists and their pets were grouped around the library and scientific collections. The museum had rooms for lectures, for meals and for anatomical sections. At the Museum there were rooms for housing.
Museumon is the oldest university, whose inhabitants and students were scientists, poets and philosophers. The number of students of the Museumon reached several hundred people. The Museumon was led by the chief priest of the Muses. Among the librarians was the head of the new poetic school Callimachus
In 47 BC. e. when Julius Caesar took Alexandria, the library had 700,000 scrolls. According to some reports, part of this repository of manuscripts was then damaged by fire. The Roman commander Anthony, wishing to bring a gift to Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, transferred 200,000 scrolls from the library of Pergamum to the Alexandrian library.
Under the emperor Aurelian in 273 AD. e. during the war between Aurelian and the queen of Palmyra, Zenobia, who founded a great eastern power, the Museum burned down along with the library.
Among the scientists of the Alexandrian era, it should be noted in the III and II centuries BC. Euclid, a mathematician and geometer, Hipparchus, the founder of trigonometry, Heron, the inventor of the steam engine, and the famous Archimedes, who also often lived in the Museum of Alexandria. The museum has been visited by many poets, astronomers and geographers, but physicians and anatomists are of particular interest to us. In ancient Greece, there was a strict ban on autopsy of the dead. In Alexandria, where the old traditions of Egypt in connection with the embalming of the dead were still alive and the opening of the human body was quite acceptable, scientists were given the opportunity to widely use the section to study the structure and functions of the human body. So, Herophilus, who was born in 300 BC. e. in Vifinpp, a student of Praxagoras Kossky and Chrysippus, he taught anatomy at the Museum and was engaged in the dissection of human corpses for display and study of them. The anatomist Straton of Lampsacus, a friend of Herophilus, was a good experimenter. Herophilus, according to Tertulian, publicly opened more than 600 corpses. Gerofpl managed to correctly describe the structure of many organs of the human body. He distinguished veins from arteries and noted the presence of blood in both. Herophilus named the pulmonary veins and studied and described the anatomy of the liver, pancreas, and genitals. With particular care, Gerofpl studied the vessels and the heart. The impulse of the pulse wave, according to Herophilus, is communicated to the arteries from the side of the heart. Studying the pulse, he established four phases: systole, diastole and two intermediate intervals. Herophilus measured the pulse rate with a water clock. He studied the eye, the optic nerve and retina, the brain, its connection with the spinal cord. He established a distinction between tendons and nerves that conduct sensations, although in Greek both tendons and nerves had the same name - "nerves". Herophilus separated the sensory nerves from the motor ones. Herophilus Alexandrius - #who should be considered the founder of scientific anatomy.
Erazistrat, a contemporary of Herophilus, according to Pliny, a relative of Aristotle, belonging to the Cnidus school, worked for many years at the Alexandria Museum and, together with Herophilus, studied the vascular apparatus. He studied the lactiferous vessels of the mesentery of living goats, the brain, its nerve centers and convolutions. He died around 240 BC. Erazistrat's studies were devoted to the study of organ function. Erazistrat is considered the founder of scientific physiology, and we owe him the discovery of a method for the experimental study of the cortex and convolutions of the brain. [^ Anatomy in its broadest sense acquired the character of an independent science thanks to the works of scientists of the Alexandrian school. Galen studied the works of the scientists of the Alexandrian school, and they were the basis of his medical knowledge and views. Having studied with great care the works of his predecessors, especially his contemporaries, citing their works and referring to them, Galen preserved for subsequent generations their names and achievements in science, since the works of many of them irretrievably perished as during the burning of the vast Library of Alexandria and its the richest archives, as well as the death of other book depositories in the turbulent era of the collapse of the ancient world and the invasion of diverse eastern conquerors.
Galen's journey to Alexandria greatly expanded the range of his knowledge and interests. He eagerly observed and studied all the sciences that interested him. Galen knew all Greek dialects, as well as Latin, Ethiopian and Persian. Galen spent more than 6 years traveling and, when he returned to Pergamum again, he became a doctor at the gladiator school, where he practiced surgery for 4 years. In 164, the 34-year-old scientist moved to Rome and soon became popular there as an educated lecturer and experienced doctor; he was known to the emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, and made friends with the Peripatetic Eudemus, a well-known philosopher in Rome, whom he cured and who glorified him as a most skillful physician.
The noisy life in Rome and the hostile attitude of some dogmatic doctors towards Galen forced him to leave Rome and undertake a new journey through Italy. Then he visited Pergamon and Smyrna, where he visited his mentor Pelops. At the invitation of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, he again returned to Rome through Macedonia.
Galen, having become a popular doctor and supervising patients from the Roman nobility, did not refuse help to the poor patients. The Roman patrician Boethius, together with friends of Galen, insisted on opening a course of lectures on anatomy, and Galen read them in the Temple of Peace to a large audience of citizens and representatives of medicine who were interested in science.
In his lectures, Galen demonstrated dissections of various animals. At the same time, he experienced a severe shock - the loss of his manuscripts, which burned down during a fire in the temple of Peace, where the entire Palatine Library, which was stored there, also perished. In Rome, Galen wrote many works, among them his main anatomical and physiological work "De usu partium corporis humani" - "On the appointment of parts of the human body." He is the author of over 125 works. Galen - a universal scientist - wrote not only medical treatises, but also philosophical, mathematical and legal works. About 80 medical works belonging to him have come down to us. They concern anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, therapy, hygiene, dietetics, obstetrics and embryology. He wrote his works in Greek, and the language of his research works is interesting for a linguist. Galen carefully studied anatomy and in his research sought to rely on facts obtained by anatomy. He wrote: “It is necessary to know exactly the functions and, above all, the structure of each part, examining the facts revealed by anatomy, and personally observing; for now the books of those who call themselves anatomists are replete with thousands of errors” (“On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body,” Book II, Chapter VII).
Galen also wrote: “Whoever wants to contemplate the creatures of nature should not trust writings on anatomy, but should rely on his own eyes, either by visiting us or one of those who usually work with us, or should independently engage in anatomy for the love of science. "("On the appointment of parts of the human body", book II, ch. III).
About the scientists who brought up the views of Galen, he said: “Be indulgent to previous anatomists if a fact that is difficult to grasp has eluded their eyes” (“On the Appointment of Parts of the Human Body”, book VII, ch. XIV).
Galen gave very great importance studying the anatomy and physiology of animals based on their own experience. These works are especially important in his extensive scientific heritage.
Galen considered nature to be the main source of knowledge, an infallible teacher of truth. All his work is a hymn to nature.
Galen wrote more than once: "Everything created by nature is excellent." "Pay attention to the words that describe the wondrous mysteries of nature." Naturalist Galen zealously studied nature. The path of research aspirations of Galen was absolutely correct and advanced for his time.
Galen's predecessors and contemporaries, explaining the origin of the world, considered a deity to be the "creator of all things". Galen, on the other hand, preferred a different term - “demiurge”, as the leading official was called in some Greek republics.
Galen's deep research in the field of studying the organism of animals and humans was a huge shift in the development of medical science.
All his research Galen conducted mainly on the corpses of various animals: dogs, pigs, bears, one-hoofed animals, ruminants, and especially monkeys, mainly lower ones. By virtue of the cult laws of the Romans, which forbade the autopsy of the dead, he was forced to resort to the study of animal organs, comparing them with the organs of the human body. These occasional comparison opportunities were rare. Galen managed to study human anatomy on the corpses of those killed in the war, on the bodies condemned to be eaten wild animals, in the study of the wounds of gladiators and on the corpses of secretly born babies thrown into the street. The difficulty of obtaining human corpses and their study was the cause of many of Galen's mistakes in describing the organs of the human body.
The great merit of Galen was that he was aware of and often corrected his own mistakes and the mistakes of other anatomists. He wrote: “How dare you say that the monkey in everything (italics mine. - V.T.) is like a man” (“On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body”, book I, ch. XX). He dreamed of being able to study and correctly describe the structure of the human body. In his work “De usu partium corporis humani” he wrote: “Among these short-necked living creatures there is also a man, to describe the structure of which is our real goal” (“On the appointment of parts of the human body”, book VIII, ch. I). This was the main goal of his anatomical studies.
If Galen was not able to fully implement the planned work, then nevertheless his great merit is that he gave a detailed, systematic description of all the anatomical structures he studied.
One of the main works of Galen "De anatomia" ("On Anatomy") consists of 16 books; nine of them have come down to us. These books were written in Greek, which at that time was the common language in science. In this study, Galen gives a consistent and complete description of the structure of the body.
Along with a large number of morphological observations, studies and discoveries, Galen also belongs to one of the first places in the application of the experimental method for the study of anatomy. Anatomical views are set out in some detail, all departments are developed by him, but not equally complete. Osteology, which he studied back in Alexandril, was studied in more detail. Describing the bones, Galen noted that they are covered in a living organism by a membrane - the periosteum. He distinguished in the skeleton the bones are long, having a canal with the bone marrow, and the bones are flat, devoid of a canal. In the bones, he described the apophyses, diaphyses, and epiphyses. True, Galen did not understand the term "diaphysis" in the way that we understand it at the present time. The first two terms have come down to our time in the Galenian interpretation. The term trochanter (trochanter) has been preserved and entered into the anatomical terminology of Galen.
In his morphological descriptions, Galen described the skull relatively correctly; he also noted the merit of Hippocrates, who described four forms of the head (skull) and each of the seams, which Galen wrote about in his main work “On the Appointment of Parts of the Human Body”.
Galen considered teeth to be bones of the skeleton. He was engaged in the study of the origin of teeth and described it in his anatomical treatise.
In the axial skeleton - the spine - Galen described 24 human vertebrae, which pass into the sacrum and coccygeal bones. On the lumbar vertebra, Galen found a process inherent in the monkey and absent in humans. Galen considers the sacrum to be the most important supporting bone, but describes it as consisting of three fragments, that is, as he saw it in pigs. Galen correctly described the collarbone, ribs and other human bones, but he described the chest not from the human skeleton, but from the skeletons of animals. He believed that the sternum consists of seven parts and triangular cartilage, i.e., like in dogs.
Galen described the bones of the upper and lower extremities. There are, however, inevitable inaccuracies in his conscientious osteological descriptions.
As for the teachings of Galen about the connections of bones, he noted and named two types of connections: diarthrosis - movable joints and synarthrosis - motionless. He subdivided diarthroses into anarthroses, arthrodias and ginglymas. Galen subdivided synarthroses into sutures, gomphoses, and flat adhesions, such as, for example, the symphysis of the pubic bones. This classification of Galen is accepted for joints and in modern anatomy. But still, in the descriptions of Galen there are many inaccuracies, especially in the description of the ligamentous and articular apparatus of a person.
Great is the merit of Galen in the study of the active apparatus of motion. Galen wrote a treatise entitled "On the Anatomy of Muscles". In his myological treatise, Galen was one of the first researchers to systematically and systematically study the anatomy of muscles.
The absence of anatomical nomenclature, which was developed only in the 16th century in the works of Jacques Dubois-Sylvius (1478-1555) and Adrian Spiegelius (1578-1625), makes it very difficult to understand Galen's texts describing muscles. Galen described about 300 muscles. He correctly described the muscles of the eye, but did not describe the trochlear muscle. Galen studied the muscles of the neck, back, larynx, chewing muscles. The term "masseter" Galen proposed in the same way as the term "cremaster".
Galen first described the skin muscle of the neck - platzma. He described the hamstrings and the Achilles tendon, which originated from the calf muscle. But Galen did not designate many muscles in terms. So, he simply called the bulbous-cavernous muscle the muscle of the bladder neck. In his description of muscle anatomy, Galen noted some muscles that do not exist in humans. At the same time, he incorrectly described the points of attachment and the function of some of the muscles that exist in humans. Studying the muscles, Galen described the worm-like, interosseous muscles, but did not know about the existence in humans of a muscle that opposes the thumb, which is characteristic of humans, and described the hand of a monkey, not a man.
In the famous portrait of Andrei Vesalius by the artist Van Kalkar, attached to the first edition of his treatise On the Structure of the Human Body, Vesalius is depicted standing at a suspended corpse and dissecting a hand. On the table in front of him lies a manuscript of the Latin text of Galen, which describes the movements of the five fingers of the hand. This text, as it were, emphasizes that the weak point in Galen's research is the hand of the human hand, since it is described incompletely and incorrectly, and Vesalius demonstrates this in his portrait, in the composition of which he himself probably participated.
Galvn experimentally showed that the limb is alternately bent by the internal, then extended by the external muscles. So, describing the fifth muscle, the largest, in his opinion, of all the muscles of the body, leading the thigh and consisting of a large, middle and small muscles, attached to the internal and posterior parts of the femur and descending almost to the knee joint, he, analyzing its function, wrote: “The posterior fibers of this muscle, coming from the ischium, strengthen the leg, straining the joint. No less strongly this action is produced by the lower portion of the fibers coming from the pubic bone, to which is added a slight rotational movement inward. Above them, the fibers that lie above bring the thigh inward in the same way as the uppermost ones lead and at the same time somewhat raise the thigh ”(“ On the Appointment of Parts of the Human Body ”, book XV, ch. VIII; Kovner, p. 885). Carefully studying the muscles, Galen noted: “Can you foresee the consequences of an injury without knowing the longitudinal, transverse or oblique direction of the muscle?” ("On the appointment of parts of the human body"). So the observational researcher Galen connected the structure of an organ with the prognosis of its recovery in case of injuries.
Galen's angiology is presented extensively and in detail, according to the views of that era. He considered the heart to be a “muscle-like” organ, and not a muscle, because he did not find in it the presence of nerve branches characteristic of skeletal muscles. He mistakenly determined the location of the heart in the center chest.
Galen correctly described the coronary vessels of the heart and the ductus arteriosus.
Galen considered the septum of the heart to be permeable to blood, which could seep through it from the left heart to the right.
This view was unshakable until the era of Vesalius, who, like his predecessors, could not detect these holes in the partition between the muscle crypts, but did not reject their existence either. Only the description of the pulmonary circulation by Michael Servet in the 16th century and the complete, exhaustive, accurate description of the movement of blood and heart, made by William Harvey in the 17th century, finally outlived this never discovered permeability of the deaf septum of the heart. So stubborn in their long walk were the hypotheses, unconfirmed by life and experience, expressed by the indisputable authorities of science.
The heart, according to Galen, is the organ that gives rise to all arteries. organism, as the liver gives rise to all veins. The system of arteries, according to Galen, carries air throughout the body, which the “roots of the arteries” receive from the lungs through an arterial vein, currently called the pulmonary artery. He wrote that air through it goes to the left atrium, then passes into the left ventricle and, finally, into the aorta. According to Galen, “When the lung expands, blood flows and fills all the veins of the lung; when it contracts, there is a kind of ebb of blood, which makes possible the constant movement of blood in the veins back and forth. It was not until the 17th century that this complex and confusing conception was properly resolved in Harvey's brilliant work on the circulation of the blood. Galen carefully studied and described the walls of the arteries as structures more thickened in comparison with the walls of the veins, which, in his opinion, are provided with a single membrane of their own.
Galen in his essay "De facultatibus naturalibus" experimentally proved the mistake of Erazistratus, who claimed that the arteries carry air, and blood enters them after cutting their wall. Galen bandaged a long section of the artery on both sides and, dissecting it, showed that not air, but blood, was coming out of it.
Galen described the veins, stating that they receive nutrients from the intestines and then supply them to the liver. The veins enter the liver through the gate - "porta", presented in the liver in the form of a transverse gap. Galen believed that there was a connection, in modern terminology, "anastomoses", between the system of veins and arteries. He described the veins of the brain, which have retained his name in modern anatomy.
The section of splanchnology is described most poorly in Galen. The intestinal tube, although he describes it as built from several layers, is still inaccurate, as if he describes something in between the longest intestines of herbivores and the shorter ones of carnivores.
Galen experimentally proved that when the stomach of the animal “is finished cooking, the lower opening of the stomach opens and food easily descends there (into the intestines), even accompanied by a large number of stones, nucleoli or other objects that are unable to turn into chyle. We can see this in the animal by calculating the moment when food passes down ... "During digestion, the exit from the stomach is securely closed, and" ... the stomach tightly covers food, just as the uterus wraps around the fetus, because there is no way to find an empty place in the uterus , not in the stomach ... "
"When the digestion came to an end, the pylorus opened and the stomach, like the intestines, exhibited peristaltic movements."
According to Galen, food gruel moves from the stomach and intestines by an expelling force, which he correctly called peristaltic movement; the term "peristaltike kinesis" belongs to Galen.
Galen closely studied the process of digestion and said that it depends on the strength of the stomach. The stomach attracts, holds and changes food substances. -"
Galen considered the liver to be a hematopoietic organ and described four lobes in it, which is typical for the structure of the liver of animals. The human gallbladder, according to Galen, has two ducts: cystic and bile, and both of them, in his opinion, flow into the duodenum.
Galen considers bile to be a product of purification * of the blood; yellow bile is a caustic liquid, which, if it enters the stomach in excess, can destroy its walls and therefore is vomited, and when present in a normal amount, ensures the removal of mucus from the digestive tract.
Galen considered the spleen to be an auxiliary organ involved in the processing of impure blood. Excesses unsuitable for the body in the form of black bile are excreted with the participation of the spleen and enter the digestive tract, helping with their astringent properties contraction and digestion.
Galen described the omentum, noting its protective function. He recalled the gladiator he operated on, from whom the omentum that had fallen out of the wound was removed. This patient of Galena afterwards always felt cold sharply and warmed his stomach with woolen clothes. Galen described the omentum as a supporting organ for vessels. Galen considered the act of breathing to be arbitrary. He argued that when singing and protecting from acrid smoke or when immersed in water, a person can hold his breath without harm. Lungs with a deep breath, expanding, fill the entire cavity of the chest. Galen studied the structure of the breathing tube in some detail. He described the respiratory apparatus, which included the larynx, rigid artery (trachea), bronchi, lungs and their vascular apparatus, heart, its left ventricle and vascular system, pulmonary arteries and veins.
Galen noted the presence of a moisturizing apparatus of the larynx in the form of fatty and viscous mucus, which protects the fine structures of the vocal apparatus from tearing and drying out. He compared the structure of the larynx with the structure of the flute. Galen's study of the structure and function of the larynx deserves great attention. The relationship between respiratory movements and pulse rate, which Galen noted in his clinical and physiological observations, is interesting. Of great interest is his treatise "On the Types of Pulses", which testifies to the sophisticated research ability of the author, about the rare gift of subtle observation. Galen wrote: “I made the science of the pulse the work of my whole life, but who after me would want to devote himself to this science in our miserable age, when no one recognizes another god than wealth? But all the same, if there are at least one thousand people who study and understand my work, I will be sufficiently rewarded for my efforts ”(Kovner. Ist. dr. med., vol. III, p. 872). The movement of the heart - the alternation of systole and diastole - Galen diligently observed on living animals.
Galen knew the difference between arterial and venous blood. He believed that all the blood is spent on nourishing parts of the body without returning it to the heart, all the time renewing in the body from the alimentary juice of the liver. According to Galen, this blood went from the liver to the right ventricle, here it was saturated with pneumoma and, in this form, entered the arteries to supply the “noble organs” with blood. Galen believed that the pulsating force of the arteries is the main engine of blood through the vessels. He paid attention to the activity of the abdominal barrier, described the function of the intercostal and cervical muscles involved in the act of breathing. Studying the act of breathing, Galen experimented a lot and found that a section of the spinal cord, made above the place of formation of the phrenic nerve, causes paralysis of the abdominal obstruction, thereby proving the participation of the spinal cord in the function of the diaphragm.
The structure of the lung, according to the descriptions of Galen, consists of branches of the windpipe, pulmonary arteries, veins and air parenchyma, first described by Eraspstratus.
Galen carried out experiments on experimental animals with the removal of a part of the chest wall with intercostal muscles to prove that the lungs were not fused to the chest wall. He also studied the genitourinary apparatus: the purpose of the kidneys, according to Galen, is to remove excess water from the blood and mainly from the vena cava system. The small tubules of the kidney filter the watery fluid and excrete it from the body in the form of urine.
Galen proved by experience that not only in a living animal, but also in a dead one, urine encounters an obstacle to returning from the bladder to the ureters. Thus, the reverse flow of urine is impossible, as it is prevented by the fold of the valve covered with MUCOUS. This is a convincing and correct experiment of Galen,
Studying the comparative morphology of the genitals, Galen expressed an interesting idea about the parallelism in the structure of male and female organs. In his opinion, the ovaries in women correspond to the testicles in men; uterus - scrotum; shameful lips - the foreskin. Galen rejected the bicornuate structure of the uterus of a woman, but considered the paired fallopian tubes to be its beginning. In the treatise "On the Seed" he referred to his experience - the operation of removing the ovaries in animals, which is far from safe. He wrote: "We hardly have the right to follow the advice of those who would like to apply it to a person in order to remove certain tumors of the ovaries." It must be assumed that already in the 2nd century AD. e. the operation of oophorectomy was practiced in some places, and Galen warned his contemporaries in the era of the complete absence of antisepsis and asepsis from such an intervention, pointing out to them the great danger and difficulties of such an operation.
Galen considered the female reproductive tube as a delay in the development of the male genital tube. In his opinion, the “cold nature” inherent in the female body, according to the views of that time, determines this inferior development. Galen's view deserves great interest, although it does not correspond to modern views on the homology of genital development. This view is all the more surprising because Galen did not note the now known fact that the difference between the sexes begins to appear only from the fifth month of the intrauterine life of the human embryo. Without noting anywhere these gtlsigns of evolution, he nevertheless proves the parallelism of development.
The merits of Galen are especially great in ob-zhaeti research of the nervous system. Studying the nervous system, he successfully continued to develop the basic concepts of Alc-meon and Hippocrates, arguing that the brain is the center of thinking and feeling. Galen considered the cerebellum and spinal cord to come out of the brain, as a kind of “root”. Galen considered the brain to be the source of the body's motor ability, and not at all a gland that cools the warmth of the heart with mucus, as Aristotle believed. Wanting to prove this in an experiment, Galen pricked and burned the heart with tongs, but this did not cause disturbances in the sensitive sphere OR consciousness. When he made such irritations in the brain, they were always accompanied by lotteries of sensitivity and consciousness. With this experiment, Galen refuted Aristotle's concept that the heart is the center of the body's sensitivity.
Galen, investigating the substance of the brain, noted that the brain is softer in the anterior region and denser in the posterior region, in the cerebellum and in the spinal cord, especially at its ending.
Galen carefully described all parts of the brain: the cerebral commissure, the lateral or anterior ventricles, the middle ventricle, the fourth ventricle, the fornix, which serves to maintain the gravity of the parts of the brain located above it and to protect the ventricles from pressure on them. Galen noted the presence of David's lyre between the posterior legs of the brain, described the "writing pen", the legs of the cerebellum to the quadrigemina, the conical appendage of the brain - the pineal gland, the cerebellum, the cerebellar vermis and the quadrigemina. He mentioned a funnel on which the sputum gland, an appendage of the brain, is suspended.
Describing the spinal cord, Galen noted: “Know that the spinal cord gives rise to all dense nerves, and its lower end is the densest, that the brain is the source of all soft nerves, and the center of its front part is intended for the softest; finally, the junction of the brain and spinal cord is the beginning of the substance of the middle nerves. Galen noted the presence of a connection between the sense organs and the brain. He made a number of interesting experiments with the transection of the spinal cord at various levels of its extension and tried to establish its role and significance in the motor acts of the body and in sensory perceptions. Dissecting the spinal cord transversely, Galen observed loss of sensation and movement disorders in areas located below the section site. Cutting the spinal cord along its entire length, he noted neither sensory nor motor disorders. By cutting the spinal cord between the atlas and the occiput or between the atlas and the epistrophy, he observed the onset of death of the animal immediately after the section.
Galen formulated his remarkable conclusion, made on the basis of an experiment on the “living” nervous system of an animal, as follows: “If any nerve or spinal cord is cut, then the parts of the organ that lie above the cut and remain in connection with the brain still retain the ability emanating from this beginning, while the whole part lying below the cut is no longer able to communicate to this organ neither movement nor sensitivity. Galen made a partial resection of the substance of the brain, even resected the hemispheres of the brain, while the animal did not lose the ability to move and did not lose sensitivity. He observed paralysis only when he opened the ventricles of the brain; this was especially pronounced when the fourth ventricle of the brain was damaged, accompanied by complete paralysis of the animal.
Galen gave a description of the nerve centers" in the brain; he gave such an episode that struck him as a doctor and experimenter: "In the city of Smyrna in Ionia, we witnessed such an incredible event. We saw young man, wounded in one of the anterior ventricles of the brain and after this injury survived, as it seemed, by the will of God; there is no doubt that he would not have survived a single minute if both ventricles had been injured at once.
Obviously, Galen trusted the laws of nature more than the "will of God." Galei always willingly referred to the authority of Hippocrates and emphasized that he “everywhere glorifies the justice of nature and its foresight towards living beings. If the duty of justice is to carefully investigate everything and give to each according to his deserts, then how can nature not surpass everyone in its justice? Such are the views of Galen, this tireless researcher of nature, the ingenious innovator of the experimental morphology of animals and man. He is interested in the structure and function of all parts of the central and peripheral nervous system.
According to Galen, the spinal cord, which begins at the level of the "writing pen", is a derivative of the brain. Not-, L thoroughly reproaching Praxagoras and Philotimus for ignorance, who rightly considered the brain to be a continuation of the spinal cord, Galen correctly described the membranes of the brain, excluding the arachnoid, which he did not know. The sensation of pain, according to Galen, originates in nerves.
Galen gave a description of seven pairs of cranial nerves. He considered the softest ophthalmic nerves (pp. op-tisi) to be the first pair, passing into the retina, which is absolutely correct. The visual hillocks of the brain, according to Galen, are the beginning of the optic nerves. He does not mark the crossover of the chiasma, but describes the chiasma as the contact of nerves. The second pair are the oculomotor nerves (nn. oculomotorii). Galen believed that they supply all the muscles of the eye, of which he counted seven in each eye socket. The third pair is the trigeminal nerves (nn. trigemini); like his predecessor, the anatomist Marin, Gapen believed that they consisted of two branches, and they both attributed the third branch to the orbital branch (nil. ophthalmici). The fourth pair Galen called the maxillary and mandibular nerves (branches of the trigeminal nerve). The fifth pair, like Marin, Galen considered the auditory and facial nerves (n. acusticus and n. facialis), taking them for a single nerve, although Galep described in detail their receptacle - the bone canal of the petrous part and the awl-mastoid foramen of the temporal bone. Galen called the vagus nerves the sixth pair. He described in detail the entire course of the vagus nerves (nn. vagi), their recurrent branches, thoracic and gastric branches. Galen described the participation of the recurrent branch of the vagus nerve in voice reproduction; and proved it experimentally. Galen considered the hypoglossal nerves (nn. hypoglossi) and the spinal nerves, of which he counted 58, to be the seventh pair. He described them in detail and correctly, including the phrenic nerves associated with eight cervical nerves.
Getting acquainted with the description of the spinal nerves made by Galen, one can notice his attempt to separately describe the autonomic sympathetic nervous system. He argued that the cutting of the anterior roots of the spinal cord impairs movement, and the posterior roots - sensitivity. These experiments by Galen were an attempt at a correct approach to a materialistic understanding of the functions of the nervous system.
The substance of the brain, according to Galen, is very close to the substance of the nerves, but he considered the nerves to be denser formations. Galen quite correctly and in detail described the nerves of the internal organs, including them in the department of the latter. As for the anatomical and physiological differentiation of the peripheral nervous system, he stated his observations as follows: “Imagine two nerves - the densest and softest of all the nerves of the body, then imagine the third, occupying a middle position between them (in density). We can consider all nerves located between the middle (by density) nerve and the densest nerve to be dense, and all the rest, up to the softest, can be considered soft. It must be thought that the dense nerves were created as the most suitable for movement and the least suitable for the perception of sensations and that, on the contrary, the soft nerves are inherent in the ability to accurately perceive sensations and incapacity for strong movements. All perfectly soft nerves are absolutely unsuitable for movement, the less soft ones, approaching the middle ones, are at the same time motor nerves, "but in their action they are much weaker than the dense nerves. Remember well that the spinal cord is the beginning of all dense nerves and that its lower the end gives rise to extremely dense nerves, that the brain is the beginning of all soft nerves, that the center of the anterior part is intended for the softest ones, that the place of confluence of the brain and spinal cord is the beginning of the substance of the middle nerves. ”Such are Galen’s observations and his attempts to find an anatomical and physiological explanation functions of the nervous system Galen described many interesting facts and made many interesting observations. So, he wrote, addressing the reader: “Consider also that the discovery that I hold in my hands, I made the first.
None of these nerves was known to any anatomist." We are talking here about the nerves of the larynx. He tried to check all his observations at the autopsy and. in the experiment. About his research, Galen wrote in the same place: "This device was discovered by anatomical research."
Numerous and interesting works of Galen, supported by experience, make him the founder of experimental physiology. His deep penetration in natural science, recognition creative force nature speak of Galen's materialistic approach to the study of the human body.
In his treatise On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body, Galen paid great attention to the structure and function of the sense organs. He wrote: “Although all the sense organs have a common source of sensation in the brain and in this respect are very similar, nevertheless, there are specific differences between them in relation to the sensing abilities themselves and to the bodies through which these sensations reach the organ. . In fact, of these faculties, one judges smells, the other tastes, one sounds, and the other the color of bodies. If the brain were not the point from which the change that takes place in each of the senses returns and returns, the animal would remain devoid of sensations. Look at the people struck by the blow; although all their sense organs are not touched, these organs, however, remain with them without any use for evaluating perceived things. Galen, describing the organ of hearing, the spiral winding passages of the labyrinth, the eardrum, gave an idea of its complex structures. He described the nerve of the tongue and noted its properties and specific role in determining taste. About the organ of smell, Galen wrote: "Of all the sense organs, only the organ of smell is placed by nature inside the skull."
Galen believed that this organ, in addition to the function of smell, also serves to cleanse the brain of excess moisture. This old and traditional view of the function of the ethmoid bone and the outflow of mucus from the brain into the nasal cavity was recognized by scientists until the Renaissance.
Of all the sense organs, the organ of vision - the eye - Galen dedicated a special book. Galen attached particular importance to the lens of the eye. He believed that the lens is nourished by vitreous moisture, which seeps from the surrounding membrane, called the retina. Its purpose, in addition to nourishing vitreous moisture, is to transmit to the brain the ideas received by the lens. Galen considered the choroid of the eye to be a continuation of the pia mater. The sclera, according to Galen, is a continuation of the dura mater, and its purpose is to protect the choroid, which the sclera surrounds. Galen considered the sixth shell of the eye to be the aponeurosis, which is a continuation of the tendons of the muscles that move the eye. The last, located outside the eyeball, is the periosteal membrane, connecting the eye to the bone and covering the muscles of the eyeball. These seven shell circles, according to Galen, are part of the structure of the iris - the iris. He rightly considered the cornea to be a continuation of the sclera. Galen also described the lacrimal apparatus of the eye.
Galen's theory of vision is built on mathematical principles. The eyeball has the shape of a circle, the visible object is perceived in a straight line - the visual beam. In order for the visible object not to double, the axes of the visual cones must lie in the same plane. Galen owns the priority of constructing a geometric substantiation of the theory of vision. But not only the theoretical results of experiments and observations are of interest to these studies.
Galen's work "On the Appointment of Parts of the Human Body" theoretically substantiates his views, but is also a manual for practitioners of that time, teaches how to diagnose diseases and determine their prognosis, considering the body as a whole. Galen himself was engaged in medical practice and was an excellent surgeon and an experienced doctor. In this treatise he gave practical advice based on own experience, which make it easier for the doctor both to make a diagnosis and prognosis in case of complicated dislocations, when it becomes necessary to cut an organ or remove part of it in case of a putrefactive lesion. When wounded by an arrow or a dart, knowing the location and purpose of parts of the human body, the doctor will be able to reasonably make an incision or know exactly what needs to be spared.
Galen wrote: “I have often had to lead the hand of surgeons who are little sophisticated in anatomy, and thereby save them from public disgrace” (De administratio-nibus anatomicis, I, III, pp. 1-9).
Galen argued that if the act of walking is impossible due to damage to the nerve or muscle, then it is also impossible if the bones that enable us to stand on our feet are fractured or dislocated.
The information presented in the treatise is also important for the purposes of surgical therapy and the diagnosis of those diseases that occur in organs hidden in the cavities of the human body.
Health in the view and interpretation of Galen is such a state of the body when all the functions of the body are performed painlessly and without hindrance, that is, without any delay. Galen wrote: “Health is the balance and harmony of the four elements g, - moisture, homogeneous parts, organs, finally, controlling the entire organism snl. According to Galen, nature itself protects and preserves the health of the body, the role of a doctor is reduced only to helping nature. Galen in his research all the time had in mind the structure of the human body, namely man. So, he wrote: "If death does not interrupt my intentions, I will someday outline the structure of animals, dissecting every smallest organ, as I did with a person." Everything that this tireless worker and most talented experimenter reported was based on his close study of the organism of animals and humans. Galen taught that the brain, heart and liver are the "life triangle", he argued that there is no incorporeal, devoid of matter, undying soul.
The works of Galen are the rise of progressive thought; in-depth studies of the organism of animals and humans. They were for his time and subsequent centuries a huge stimulus for the development of biological and medical science.
For 14 centuries, the works of Galen were the only source of anatomical knowledge. The greatness of his achievements made him an irrefutable and unquestionable authority. All attempts to correct the texts of Galen were considered deliberately vicious. No one dared to correct his involuntary mistakes, and they were established as infallible truths.
Andrei Vesalius, who deeply appreciated and respected Galen, studied and participated in the reprinting of his works, it was out of a sense of recognition for the great scientist, for his research methods that demonstrate the truth, that he decided to refute some of Galen's data and to correct his mistakes. But this struggle of Vesalpy with the numerous conservative adherents of Galen, and not with his ideas and progressive methods of research, cost Vesalius his life.
There is a curious epigram of the famous physician and polyhistor John Sambuc (1531-1584) - this is an inscription under the image of Andrei Vesalius, the founder of human anatomy, in the famous iconographic work of I. Sambuc "Several images of ancient and new doctors" (Antwerp, 1574). This epigram is remarkable in that it notes the autopsy by ancient doctors of mainly animal corpses; there she is:
“Who without you will be a good doctor and surgeon
excellent,
If he did not penetrate into the structure and essence of the organs? How many centuries this industry has been lurking in the dark: dogs and pigs - not people of old, doctors opened. (Translated by Yu. F. Schultz)
Evidence of the high authority of Galen is the deep interest of doctors in his works and the desire to use them and widely disseminate them. For greater popularization of the works of Galen, some doctors compiled their "Abbreviations", which was the custom of that time. The popular presentation of complex medical problems facilitated their study and practical application. In addition to the "Abbreviations" of the works of the luminaries of ancient medicine, it was customary to write about them in poetic form, in the form of epigrams. We give two epigrams about the writings of Galen, written by unknown doctors, probably in the era of late antiquity, and one epigram of the doctor Magnus:
1. (Palat, anthol., appendix III, 231) Having brought together with great difficulty everything here, What the book does not explain to us incomprehensibly, I have clearly stated to those who want to know And without difficulty I delivered a wondrous gift to them. With my hand, diligently, I gave this book the content, briefly setting it out, From where it generously pours - in this is God's helper - A plentiful stream of charm, which is visible to everyone, Delivering us from the severity of ailments And driving away the miserable kind of suffering. Who wished to find a sage sooner, With the speeches of a strong Galen, - after all, he wrote Beautifully, and his glory ascended Immeasurably upward, - for those he appeared in splendor, Sparkling with the indescribably purity of words; Brilliant, marvelous, glorious, but also modest to the Hearts who knew him - there are no bliss higher - Appeared like a luminary, radiating light
(Translated by Yu. F. Schultz)
The most prominent anatomist of the 19th century, Georges Cuvier, characterized Galen as follows: “Galen is much higher than Aristotle as an anatomist, physiologist and doctor. He is the first TRUE anatomist of antiquity.” And this characterization is fair and objective.
Encyclopedist Galen, a great scientist, an unsurpassed connoisseur of the Greek language, who owns all the treasures of knowledge of the Greek, Alexandrian and Roman medical schools, is one of the founders of independent research in biological science and a pioneer of remarkable observations made by him, both in the study of structure and in the study of functions organisms of animals and humans.
How did the views and ideas of Galen influence the ancient Russian zealots of medical education? How and in what way did Galen's monumental scientific heritage help them? In the 15th century in Russia, the hegumen of the Belozersky monastery Kirill created the “Commentary of Galen on the works of Hippocrates” compiled by him. Cyril undertook this work for the needs of the monastery hospital and entitled it "Galpnovo on Ipocrates." Cyril, known to the world as Kuzma, was born in Moscow in 1337. He was tonsured a monk in the Simonov Monastery. There he subsequently became an archimandrite, but left the abbot for the sake of solitude, which he sought. To this end, Cyril settled in a cave and went to the monastery "for silence" on Beloozero to Lake Siversky. There he founded a monastery and for 30 years he was hegumen in it. Cyril died in 1427 at the age of 90. Cyril was a student of Sergius of Radonezh and took part in political life Muscovite Russia, as evidenced by his writings.
He wrote "Instructive Messages" to various Russian princes - to Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, to Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky and Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky.
Known is the "Charter of the Monastery" written by him. The text of the Charter is printed in abbreviated terms in the Menaia at the biography of Cyril. He wrote "Messages" (in the fourth part of the History of the Russian Hierarchy in the description of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery). Cyril was the most educated man of his time. Under him, the correspondence of books and manuscripts by the monks of the monastery was organized in the monastery. Cyril was founded and assembled a big library consisting of handwritten books. This most valuable collection of manuscripts and books is kept in Leningrad in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library. Cyril was so popular and active that the monastery he founded bore his name.
The manuscript "Galinovo on Ipocrates" was found in the 19th century and published by N. S. Tikhonravov. Since the ancient text of this work by Galen is quite extensive, it is obvious that Tikhon-Ravov, and perhaps Cyril himself, while working on compiling his work, subjected it to reduction, taking from it what he considered necessary. Cyril's Manuscript provides anatomical and physiological information, notes the forms of diseases of the eyes and teeth, describes suffocation, provides information on dietetics and other useful advice.
The definition of medicine is interesting: “Medicine is cunning (art), a measure for the healthy and healing for the sick.” In order to give an idea of the ancient original of Galen's commentary to the Hippocratic collection, we present the contents of this collection: two books describing the "nature of man", three books "preserving health", four books on the diet, four books on the treatment of acute diseases, three books on body fluids, three books on epidemics, four books on articulations, three books on bone fractures, three books on the prognosis of diseases, three books on the "doctor's workshop", i.e., on the manufacture of remedies.
This is an interesting and necessary creation of the medical practice of Galen and was used by Cyril Belozersky for the monastic doctors of Russia. If we do not take into account this handwritten work, made in the pre-Petrine period of our history in the Old Russian language, we could say that none of the works of Claudius Galen was translated into Russian. Meanwhile, doctors refer to the works of Galen very often, and our doctors are forced to receive information about this classic of medicine either in various quotations, or having only Greek originals or some foreign translations; works of Galen. In English, neither in England nor in America until now there is no translation of the main work of Galen "On the appointment of parts of the human body." Therefore, the commented edition of this main work of Galen in Russian fills in a significant gap in the series of classics of medical science.
This series medical writings, already published in the Soviet Union, is represented by the works of Hippocrates, Cornelius Celsus ("On Medicine"), Ibn-Sina (Avicenna) ("Canon of Medicine"), Arnold from; Villanov (“Salerno Code of Health”), anatomical and physiological works of Leonardo da Vinci, a treatise by the anatomy reformer Andrei Vesalius. All of them refer to the works of Galen, quote, comment, criticize him - that is why the acquaintance with the main work of Galen "On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body", an outstanding monument of Roman medical science, acquires great scientific interest both for researchers of science and for physicians.
The works of Galen were repeatedly translated in the East. There are translations of his works into Arabic and Syriac.
Of the translations of Galen's works into Latin, it should be noted that of great interest is the handwritten translation of part of Galen's works: Nico-laus de Regio around 1330 in the excellent parchment codex of the Dresden Library, decorated with 116 artistically executed drawings in the form capital letters. They echo the text and draw scenes of everyday life and costumes of that time.
In Latin, the works of Galen in two volumes first appeared in the Venetian edition of 1490. In Greek, in five volumes, the works of Galen were published only in 1525. reprinted many times. Then we should note the Basel editions of 1534 and 1542, issued by the famous printer Hieronin Froben. The following translations are known.
Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR full member
International Academy of the History of Medicine
V. N. TERNOVSKY
The greatest medical scientist of ancient times after Hippocrates was
Claudius Galen(131-201 AD). His ideas were mainly based on
the teachings of Hippocrates, as well as Aristotle in doctors of the late period
Alexandrian school. According to the worldview of ancient times,
Galen understood the integrity of the organism. “In the totality of the parts, everything
is in mutual agreement and among the parts everything contributes to the activity
each of them." 6 centuries after Hippocrates, he systematized
his humoral theory of pathology, which he fully shared! Galen
represented health as balance and harmony (kraza) of the four elements
or body juices: blood, bile, black bile, mucus (phlegm): in case of illness
there is a violation of the correct displacement of juices (dyscrasia), after they
"cooking" (coccio) and removal and the body of harmful substances occurs
recovery. This served as the basis for the widespread use of laxatives,
emetic, diaphoretic, frequent and large bloodletting. About the emergency
the attractiveness and vitality of this theory is evidenced by its recognition
until the 19th century (!).
Galen highly valued the first scientific law of medicine discovered by Hippocrates,
asserting that nature is the best of physicians. Galen was versatile
great merit lies in the careful and detailed study of anatomy and
human physiology - the fundamental sciences of medical education. These
extensive research is presented in the book on "The Purpose of the Parts of the Human
bodies." In his writings, including those mentioned above, tirelessly
expediency of the structure and function of each human organ and
animal; teleological explanations were decisive. Together with Aristotle
he argued that nature does nothing without a purpose. Galen, giving an anatomical
physiological descriptions, everything is considered from the point of view of “what for”, and
not "why", explains their usefulness.
In practical medicine, Galen is credited with studying patients
the pulse, which Hippocrates does not mention; he distinguished 27 variations of the pulse.
He wrote: “I made the science of the pulse the business of my whole life,” and adds, “but
who after me will want to devote himself to this science in our miserable age, when
no one recognizes another god than wealth." Exploring - Features
pain, he was the first to try to distinguish the place of their occurrence -
aponeurosis, pleura, bone, veins, etc.
In the study of the patient, Galen introduces rational requirements:
visible symptoms should be associated with damage to a specific organ,
then determine the nature of the lesion (inflammation, etc.), and also establish
causes (hot or cold, damp or dry).
Galen's study of fevers - diseases that did not have localization and
attracting special attention of doctors from the very beginning of medical care,
was very thorough. According to the then, as well as his views, all sorts of
skin hemorrhages, rashes, pustules, etc. were considered as a form
removal of painful juices as the beginning of a possible recovery.
Creation of a detailed anatomical and physiological description for the first time
The human body was qualitatively new in the development of medicine. Galen -
introduced into the basis of healing and solving the problems of medicine fundamental
disciplines (anatomy and physiology), so he is rightly considered
founder scientific medicine(B. D. Petrov)
The principles of scientific research for him were: "He who
wants to contemplate the creatures of nature, should not trust the works of anatomy,
first of all, the structure of each part, considering the facts discovered
anatomy based on their own observations; because now the books
those who call themselves anatomists abound in thousands of errors. This is not
it is difficult to see the principle of modern natural science - Nullius in verbd -
with Asclepiades, an opponent of the humoral theory, he points out the errors
the latter: “One is a disregard for anatomical dissections, the other is
ignorance of the principles of logical thinking.
In the works of Galen, the interpretation of natural phenomena is exclusively
teleological, for example, “... in everything, our demiurge, when arranging parts
pursues only one goal: choosing the best. The thesis that "nature
reasonable” not only makes it difficult to assimilate his discoveries, but also contradicts
modern natural science. In special studies of Galen
many inaccuracies and sometimes gross errors are found. For example, he
believed that the pulsating force of the arteries is the main engine of blood
vessels, although he also described the systole and diastole of the heart; this idea is not so long ago
partially revived in the theory of the "peripheral heart" of M. V. Yanovsky.
Most notable was misconception that the transition
blood from the right ventricle to the left ventricle passes through the interventricular
partition. Only in the 17th century, the works of Galen made it possible to correct this
Galen is a follower of high medical ethics in the spirit
Hippocrates - could not indifferently see the decline in morality of many healers of Rome:
“The mind of most doctors is directed not to science, not to healthy recipes;
low greed makes them capable of every hateful act
(blackmail). Between robbers and doctors, the whole difference is that one
commit their crimes in the mountains, and others in Rome.” He is convinced that "no
alone good man envy is not characteristic of anything, but it is created,
to help and improve everything.” Finishing the book "On the appointment of parts
human body", Galen wrote that "the doctor will benefit greatly
for treatment from this work, as well as from the work on functions. So
Thus, at the end of the ancient period, they began to study quite thoroughly
details" of the human body, but pathological anatomy has not yet
Galen, who demanded to study everything "with his own eyes", to avoid
scientists in the history of medicine. He was indisputable for 14 centuries. Often
believed that nature could be more likely to make a mistake than Galen. His books (and his
mistakes!) were canonized, as were the sacred books of the church and the works of the ancient
With the fall of Rome came the grim 1000th anniversary of the absolute power of the Church -
Middle Ages. The worldview of the Middle Ages was, in essence,
theological ..., church dogma was a similar point and basis
any thought." Scientific research » new knowledge was investigated,
ignorance was exalted. On guard dogma was a fire. Only with development
Renaissance "the spiritual dictatorship of the church was broken, and with it
there was an opportunity to fully study the works of Hippocrates.
K. Galen considered "illness" as a special condition in which
there is a violation of the correct mixing of the main elements and liquids
organism. This disruption, in turn, leads to disruption of the function of various
organs. All these deviations are the source of certain symptoms,
and the point of diagnosis is to recognize it.
In the treatment of diseases, K. Galen widely used the use, diets and,
of course, drugs. Applying the latter, he was guided
developed by him the principle of opposite action. He believed that
dryness can be tempered with moisture, and heat or heat (high temperature
body) - cold. Studying in detail anatomy and physiology, without which Galen
did not think of progress in the development of medicine, he made significant amendments to
study of the human body. If before it was believed that in the arteries
pneuma flows, he was the first to say that blood flows in them. I'm carefully
studied and described muscular, digestive and respiratory system. Whatever
organ or part of the human body was not studied by Galen, he always tried to understand
not only its function, but also the difference that exists between the organs
humans and animals, including monkeys. Every part of the organ is not
only described in detail, but also explained its purpose. Comparing the body to
inorganic nature, Galen came to the conclusion that in nature everything is done
suitable, expedient. He described in detail all the bones and
muscles. Compared with their predecessors and, above all, Erazistrat
introduces many clarifications in their description. Carefully, with just
scalpel, he studied the nerves. The study of the central nervous system and its connections
with the peripheral is the main thing in Galen's scientific research on him over
Alcmaeon, Hippocrates, Erazistrat worked hard on this problem. Galen is not
only checked the data presented by them, but also through experiments introduced many
clarifications and additions previously unknown to medicine. An even greater effect was produced by the dissection of the nerves leading to
sense organs, resulting in animals losing hearing, sight or
sense of smell, depending on the integrity of which nerves was violated. These
experiments were carried out in front of all those present, among whom there were many
doctors. The study of nerves allowed Galen to conclude that the nerves
their functional features are divided into three groups: those that go to
sense organs, perform the function of perception, going to the muscles know
movement, and those going to the organs protect them from damage. Not all Galen
was understood correctly, but what he knew testified to
progress in medicine.
K. Galen made a certain contribution to the study of psychology. Carefully studying
anatomy, he came to the conclusion that the brain is the organ of thinking and
Feel. Thus, he confirmed the conjecture expressed by Alcmaeon and
Hippocrates, and at the same time destroyed the myth of Aristotle, which assigned the brain
the role of a cooler of heat coming from the heart. The data of his work were
materialistic character. They say that even in ancient times, although
on the naively materialistic level of teachings about the psyche, but there was a struggle against
idealism. And sometimes the basis for this struggle was the achievements of medicine and
natural sciences.
Thus, K. Galen was one of the first physiologists"
experimenters. Even in the II century. he did experiments on the ligation of the nerves of the organs
feelings. So in those distant times, the connection of nerves with
sensations. Even in the brain, he tried to find areas that
are in charge of sensations, thinking and voluntary movements.
Galen expressed peculiar thoughts regarding the functional
activity of the nervous system, its connection with the peripheral nervous system.
He believed that in the body, in addition to the animal pneuma underlying
physiological from! governments, there is a psychic pneuma that
acts as a carrier of signals of irritation, or received by organs
feelings, sensations, to the brain, and from it carries to the organs of movement motor
impulses. Although this was a naively materialistic view, it also
already ingeniously guessed that really existing closed circuit
nervous system, which, with the help of nerve cells, transmits received
irritation in the form of various sensations in the central nervous system,
which helps to perceive these irritations and respond to them.
In the study of anatomy by Galen, mistakes were made. Designed by him
the circulatory system, although it was in service with doctors until the XVII
in., until it was corrected by Harvey, did not reflect the true state. According to him
theory, from the liver coarse blood (venous) came directly into
right half of the heart. This organ (heart) was entrusted with the function of
blood filtration. He believed that under the influence of the warmth of the heart from the blood
bad parts are removed. After that, through the septum of the heart, the purified
blood enters the left half of the heart, from where it is carried through all the vessels
throughout the body. It was an unfinished design. It did not reflect the full
circulation circle.
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