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A group of physicians in an image from the Vienna Dioscurides; Galen is depicted top center. In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary, [81] the emperor Marcus Aurelius describing him as "Primum sane medicorum esse, philosophorum autem solum" (first among doctors and unique among philosophers Praen 14: 660).
At the heart of Roman medicine and central to the development of Western medicine is Galen of Pergamum (AD 129–c. AD 210). [12] Galen was a prolific writer from whose surviving works comes what Galen believed to be the definitive guide to a healthy diet, based on the theory of the four humours. [13]
In 166, Galen returned to Pergamon, but went back to Rome for good in 169. Galen followed Hippocrates' theory of the four humours, believing that one's health depended on the balance between the four main fluids of the body (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm). Food was believed to be the initial object that allowed the stabilization of ...
129 – 216 AD – Galen – Clinical medicine based on observation and experience. [13] The resulting tightly integrated and comprehensive system, offering a complete medical philosophy dominated medicine throughout the Middle Ages and until the beginning of the modern era. [18]
Galen produced more work than any author in antiquity, [1] His surviving work runs to over 2.6 million words, and many more of his writings are now lost. [1]Karl Gottlob Kühn of Leipzig (1754–1840) published an edition of 122 of Galen's writings between 1821 and 1833.
Doctors learned through private courses from other doctors, their relatives, in the city of Alexandria, or through self-teaching. Charlatans and malpractice were common in ancient Rome, as any individual, regardless of their training or qualifications could practice medicine. [4] This resulted in the general public becoming distrustful of doctors.
This coincides with the role placed on physicians of the time to not act as scientists. [2] Galen however, believed that to understand the human body one had to understand the mixture of its elements. [49] Much of what is known of Erasistratus and that of his work he did in the 3rd and 4th BC has become known through the work done by Galen. [26]
Better knowledge of the original writings of Galen in particular, developed into the learned medicine tradition through the more open attitudes of Renaissance humanism. Religious control of the teachings of the medical profession and universities diminished, and dissection was more often possible.