GALEN, one of the most celebrated physicians of anti quity, and singular for the unbounded sway which his opi nions long maintained over the medical world. He was born in the 131st year of the Christian era, in Pergamos, a city of Asia Minor, of which Esculapius, the god of medi cine, was considered as the protector. This circumstance, and the consequent attention which its priests paid to the medical art, probably rendered it a place well fitted to cherish in an ardent mind a zeal For medical pursuits. He flourished in the reigns of M. Aurelius, Commodus, Lu cius, and Sevcrus. He enjoyed great advantages from the literary and scientific attainments of his father Nico, a man of considerable wealth, and highly respected for his exem plary temper and virtue, as well as for his eminent know ledge in literature, geometry, astronomy, and architecture. His mother is described by him as a woman of strict vir tue, and an excellent economist, but unhappy in her tem per, often quarrelling with her husband, and even biting her domestics.
His preliminary education, consisting in grammar, arith metic, geometry, and astronomy, was continued till he was fifteen years of age. In these branches he discovered a ready capacity and a retentive memory, and his attainments far exceeded those of his fellow scholars. He then turned his attention to logic and philosophy. lie studied the sys tem of the Stoics, by attending the prelections of Philope tor, and reading the works of Chrysippus. On the latter he wrote a comment during his early studies. From the Stoical discipline he is considered as having greatly profit ed, by acquiring principles of rigid self-government, which armed him against the licentious manners of that age. He studied the Platonic philosophy under Caius, a fellow citi zen, a man of singular worth and incorruptibility of cha racter. To these studies he was probably indebted for the elegant direction which was given to the natural fervour of his mind. His father also gave him an oppurtunity of learning the Epicurean philosophy, under an Athenian who had settled in Pergamos. On the various systems of the day, he so far made up his mind, as to write disserta tions on their merits. In these he gave a share of praise to each, with the exception of the Epicurean, which he re jected and opposed. His early studies were not under taken with any view of rising in the world, but purely as conducive to the improvement of his own mind, and the rational enjoyment of life. But a resolution to cultivate a
philosophy which excludes all exterior glory, very often proves unsteady, especially where prospects of utility to mankind seem to exact from an accomplished mind a de votedness to a public life. The destinies or Galen were widely different from these original views. In his seven teenth year, lie was determined, by a superstitious regard to a dream of his father's, to apply to the study of medi cine. His previous liberal education had so far enlarged his mind, as to impress him with the propriety of combin ing with his new pursuits the prosecution of his philoso phical studies. Natural philosophy, in a particular man ner appeared necessary, for the purpose of cultivating a thorough knowledge of the physical qualities of those ob jects which medicine comprehends. He carefully weighed the merits of the various medical as well as philosophical systems, and made himself a complete master in the art of reasoning, as practised by the ancients. Possessed of judg ment to guide in some measure his own studies, he changed his teachers whenever he perceived that no improvement was to be derived from them. Hence it was an honour to have him for a pupil, and to the sophists of the day he was not a little formidable. Some of his studies were prose cuted at Corinth, others at Smyrna. Afterwards he went to Rome, where he embraced an oppurtunity of studying with the teachers belonging to the three medical sects, the Rational or Dogmatic, the Methodic, and the Empiric. He maintained a uniform respect and attachment to all his tea chers, but in none did he ever repose blind admiration or implicit confidence. Determined to take nothing on mere report, which it was possible for him to examine with his own eyes, he travelled for the express purpose of seeing the different articles of the materia medics in their native country. He went to Palestine to see the opobalsamum and bitumen, and to Lemnos to see the celebrated Lemnian earth. He reviewed the metallic productions of Cyprus, and brought home, for the use of his countrymen, quanti ties of the mineral substances which went under the names of Cadmia, Pompholyx, Diphryges, and Chalcanthus. He also examined the articles of diet used in different coun tries, and pointed out those which he considered as most proper for the sick.