It seems a great pity that one of the most inspiring figures in the history of medicine should be represented to posterity with such a blemish upon his character, and I have therefore ventured to suggest a possible defense of Galen’s action.

Not very long after he had returned to Pergamum, Galen was summoned by the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, who were then with the army at Aquileia, a few miles north of the present Trieste, to join them at that city; and he was, of course, obliged to obey. A fresh outbreak of the Plague had occurred and there had already been many fatal cases among the troops. It was therefore decided by the emperors, almost immediately after Galen’s arrival, to return to Rome with a part of the army. A start was accordingly made, and the company had already advanced some distance on their way, when Lucius Verus died. This unexpected event greatly increased the difficulties of the return journey, as it was deemed necessary to carry the remains of the deceased Emperor back to the imperial city. Thus Galen found himself once more settled in Rome, this time in the capacity of private physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his sons Commodus and Sextus. The position was extremely well adapted to the needs of Galen, who, from that time forward, for a period of several years, had at his disposal ample time for writing and for conducting his experimental work in anatomy and physiology, a privilege of which he appears to have made excellent use. He lived to be seventy years of age, his death occurring during the latter part of the reign of Severus, or at the beginning of that of Caracalla (about 201 A. D.).

All Galen’s critics agree that he possessed his full share of peculiarities,—not to call them by the harsher name of faults. He was constantly ready, for example, to praise his own doings and sayings, and he rarely lost an opportunity of holding up the physicians of Rome to ridicule and contempt. He was specially bitter in his criticisms of Methodism and its adherents—“the donkeys of Thessalus,” as he called them. At the same time, no other physician of ancient or modern times has manifested to an equal degree such extraordinary industry as a writer and original investigator in a great variety of departments of knowledge. Although many of his works have been lost,[39] those which have come down to our time are still very numerous—“a sufficient number,” says Neuburger, “to constitute a library by themselves.” I give here a few of the titles of these works, in order that the reader may get at least some idea of the great variety of medical topics which Galen has discussed in his writings. The more complete list furnished by Daniel Le Clerc contains nearly two hundred titles, and yet even this is believed to fall short of the actual number.

SELECTED LIST OF THE WORKS OF GALEN RELATING TO MEDICINE. (FROM LE CLERC.)

The numerous works of Galen, says Pagel, constitute a complete and very satisfactory encyclopaedia of medicine. The most available edition of his works in Greek is that of Karl Gottlob Kühn of Leipzig (1821–1828; 22 Vols. of about 1000 pages each). There is scarcely a department which this great physician has not treated quite fully. But, unfortunately, the translations into modern languages are relatively few, and they cover only small portions of the entire work. That of Daremberg, entitled “Oeuvres anatomiques, physiologiques et médicales de Galien, etc.” (Paris, 1854–1857; 2 Vols.), is in every way most satisfactory, and it is from this source that I have made a few extracts—just sufficient to give the reader some idea of Galen’s style of writing and of his competency to deal with such subjects as human anatomy and physiology. To attempt anything like a complete exposition of his views regarding pathology, therapeutics, hygiene, etc., would necessitate my devoting more space to this part of the history of medicine than I can afford to give. To those who desire to obtain more ample information about Galen’s views regarding pathology and therapeutics I would recommend a study of Daremberg’s admirable work and a perusal of the careful analysis made by Neuburger of certain portions of Galen’s text.

Galen’s Contributions to Anatomy and Physiology.—At the period of time about which I am now writing, and for many centuries afterward, there existed among all classes of the community a very strong prejudice against dissecting human corpses. And even Galen himself appears to have shared this prejudice, for, in spite of his intense eagerness to gain a more perfect knowledge of human anatomy, he apparently did not dare to undertake any such investigation, even when a favorable opportunity for so doing presented itself, as it did on the occasion to which he refers in the following brief extract taken from one of his treatises:—

A carelessly constructed sepulchre on the banks of a river had been undermined during a season of flood, and the corpse thus set free had floated down stream a short distance, until it finally lodged on the shore of a small cove. Passing near by I had the opportunity of inspecting this corpse. The fleshy parts had already disappeared to a great extent through the process of decomposition, but the bones were still held together by their fibrous connections. The picture presented to the eye was that of a human skeleton specially prepared for the instruction of young physicians. On another occasion, a few steps from the main road, I came across the dead body of a robber who had been killed by the traveler whose money he had attempted to steal. The peasants of that neighborhood were not willing to bury the corpse of such a bad man, and they accordingly allowed it to remain at the spot where it was first discovered. In the course of the following two days, as might be expected, the vultures removed every particle of flesh from the bones, so that, when I saw what remained of the body, the only thing visible was a nicely cleaned skeleton.

(Le Clerc: Histoire de la Médecine, p. 711.)

Here were two excellent opportunities for gaining the additional knowledge of human anatomy which Galen so much desired, but he evidently was not at all disposed to avail himself of them—doubtless because his mind was deeply imbued with the feeling that any such interference on his part would be a sacrilegious act. Under the circumstances, therefore, there was nothing left for him to do but to utilize animals for purposes of dissection, and more particularly apes, whose anatomy very closely resembles that of the human being. Several of Galen’s books on anatomy have come down to our time, but quite a number of others have been lost. From those which we possess, and especially from the one entitled “Anatomical Administrations,” it is permissible to conclude that he was a most skilful dissector and an extremely close and careful observer, and that he was very particular to set down the results of his observations in admirably clear language. Indeed, Le Clerc assures us that Vesalius, the great Flemish anatomist of the sixteenth century, bestowed high praise upon Galen’s anatomical descriptions; and that, too, notwithstanding the fact that the latter sometimes erred in his statements regarding the similarity between certain parts observed in dissections of an animal and the corresponding parts in man. In one of his treatises[40] Galen states distinctly that the arteries contain blood. In another he gives a remarkably full and accurate description of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and many of the nerves.