GALE'NUS, CLAUDIUS, commonly called GALEN, a very celebrated physician, b. at Pergamus, in Mysia, 130 A. D. In his 17th year, his father, Nicon, who bad hitherto destined him to be a philosopher, in consequence of a dream, chose for him the profes• sion of medicine. This subject he first studied at rem:nus, afterwards at Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria.' Ile returned to his city in his 29th year, and was at once appointed physician to the school of gladiators. In his 34th year, he went to Row, where he stayed for about four years, and gained such a reputation, that he was offered, but declined, the post of physician to the emperor. He returned to his native country in his 38th year, and had scarcely resumed his ordinary course of life, when lie received a summons from the emperors M. Aurelius and L. Veins to attend them in the north-eastern frontier of Italy, whither they had gone to make preparations for a war with the northern tribes. He joined the camp towards the end of the year 169; hut a pestilence breaking out, the emperors and their court set, off for Borne, whither G. accompanied or followed them. On the return of M. Aurelius to the seat of war, G. obtained permission to be left at Rome, alleging that such was the will of /Esculapius, as revealed to him in a dream. How long G. stayed at Rome on this second occasion is not known, but we ascertain from his works that he attended M. Aurelius and his two sons, Commodus and Sextus, and that at about the end of the 2d he was employed to compound a celebrated medicine called theriaca for the emperor Severus. If the statement of one of his Arabic biographers be correct, who expressly. says that G. was only twice at Rome, we must infer that the greater part of his middle and more advanced life was spent in that city. The place and date of his death are not known with certainty, hut it is believed that he died in Sicily about the yea• 201.
The works that are still extant under the name of G. conRist, according to Choulaut. in his Handbuch der Biicherkunde fur dieaeltere of.83 treatises acknowledged to be genuine; 19. wliwe.' genuinenefis 'has been q1ieStioneC 4 ruikatedly spurious; 19 fragments; and 15 commentaries on different works of Hippocrates. Besides these, he wrote a great number of works whose titles only are preserved, and altogether it is believed that the number of his distinct treatises cannot have been less than 500.
We may. divide his works into (1) those on anatomy and physiology; (2) those on dietetics and hygiene; (3) those on pathology; (4) those on diagnosis and semeiology; (5) those on pharmacy and matcria medica; (G) those on therapeutics, including surgery; (7) his commentaries on Hippocrates; and (8) his philosophical and miscellaneous works, We have most of these Works in Greek, the language in which they were orig inally written; some are, however, preserved only in Latin translations, and a few only in Arabic. His most. important anatomical and physiological works are—De Anatomic-is Administrationibus, and De Lisa Partium Corporis Hunumi. Of the latter, Dr. Greenhill (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and .Roman Biography) remarks that "it is no less admira ble for the deep religious feeling with which it is written, than fin. the scientific knowl edge and acuteness displayed in it." For a good general account of G.'s anatomical and physiological knowledge, we may refer to a memoir published by the late prof. Kidd of Oxford in the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, entitled " A Cursory Analysis of the Works of Galen, so far as they relate to Anatomy and Physiology," and Daremberg's Exposition sdes Connaissances de Galien sur l'Anatomie, la Physiologic, et la Pathologie du Systenze.Yerveux (Paris, 1841),
may also be consulted with advantage. His anatomical and physiological writings are by far the most valuable of his works. They contain undoubted evidence of his famil iarity with practical anatomy; but whether he derived his knowledge from dissections of human bodies or those of the lower animals, is uncertain. The latter is the most probable view—(1) because he frequently recommends the dissection of apes, bears, goats, etc.: and (2) because he mentions, as something extraordinary, that those physicians who attended the emperor M. Aurelius in his wars against the Germans, had an oppor tunity of dissecting the bodies of the barbarians. Much curious information regarding G.'s views on dietetics and hygiene will be found in Adams's Commentary on the First Book of Paulus ..eflgineta. His pathology was very speculative and imperfect. In his diagnosis and prognosis, he laid great stress on the pulse, on which subject he may be considered as the first and greatest authority, for all subsequent writers adopted his system without alteration. He likewise placed great confidence in the doctrine of crit ical days, which he believed to be influenced by the moon. In materica medica, his authority was not so high as that of Dioscorides. Numerous ingredients, many of which were probably inert, enter into most of his prescriptions. He seems to place a more implicit faith in amulets than in medicine, and he is supposed by Ciillen to be the author of the anodyne necklace, which was so long famous 'in England. We cannot attempt to enter into his system of therapeutics. We may, however, observe, that his practice is based on two fundamental principles—(1) that disease is something contrary to nature, and is to be overcome by, that which is contrary to the disease itself; and (2) that nature is to be preserved by that which has relation to nature. Hence arise two general indications of treatment—the one taken from the affection contrary to nature, which affection requires to be overcome; the other from the strength and natural constitution of the body, which requires to be preserved.
Before G.:s time, the medical profession was divided into several sects. who were always disputing with one another; as, for example, the Dogmatici, Empirici, Eclectici, Pneumatiei, and Episynthetici. After his time, all these sects seem to have merged in his followers. The subsequent Greek and Roman medical writers were mere com pilers from his writings; and as soon as his works were translated (in. the 9th c.) into Arabic, they were at once adopted throughout the east, to the exclusion of all others. In short, G. reigned paramount throughout the -civilized world till within the last 300 years. The records of the London college of physicians afford a striking illustration of this fact, in so far as England is concerned. In 1559. Dr. Geynes "was cited before the college for impugning the infallibility of Galen. On his acknowledgment of his error and humble recantation, signed with his own hand, he was received into the college." The Greek text has been published four times. The first edition was the Aldine, printed in 1525, in 5 folio volumes; the latest and most accessible edition is that of C. G. Kuhn, in 20 octavo volumes, the publication of which extended from 1821 to 1833. A. good, critical edition is still required.