A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
Religion
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
Recent ignorance of Galen—His voluminous works—The manuscript
tradition of his works—His vivid personality—Birth and
parentage—Education in philosophy and medicine—First visit to
Rome—Relations with the emperors; later life—His unfavorable picture
of the learned world—Corruption of the medical profession—Lack of real
search for truth—Poor doctors and medical students—Medical discovery
in his time—The drug trade—The imperial stores—Galen’s private
supply of drugs—Mediterranean commerce—Frauds of dealers in wild
beasts—Galen’s ideal of anonymity—The ancient book trade—Falsification
and mistakes in manuscripts—Galen as a historical source—Ancient
slavery—Social life; food and wine—Allusions to Judaism and
Christianity—Galen’s monotheism—Christian readers of Galen.
II. _His Medicine and Experimental Science_
Four elements and four qualities—His criticism of atomism—Application
of the theory of four qualities in medicine—His therapeutics
obsolete—Some of his medical notions—Two of his cases—His power of
rapid observation and inference—His happy guesses—Tendency toward
scientific measurement—Psychological tests with the pulse—Galen’s
anatomy and physiology—Experiments in dissection—Did he ever dissect
human bodies?—Dissection of animals—Surgical operations—Galen’s
argument from design—Queries concerning the soul—No supernatural
force in medicine—Galen’s experimental instinct—His attitude
toward authorities—Adverse criticism of past writers—His estimate
of Dioscorides—Galen’s dogmatism; logic and experience—His
account of the Empirics—How the Empirics might have criticized
Galen—Galen’s standard of reason and experience—Simples knowable
only through experience—Experience and food science—Experience and
compounds—Suggestions of experimental method—Difficulty of medical
experiment—Empirical remedies—Galen’s influence upon medieval
experiment—His more general medieval influence.
III. _His Attitude Toward Magic_
Accusations of magic against Galen—His charges of magic against
others—Charms and wonder-workers—Animal substances inadmissible
in medicine—Nastiness of ancient medicine—Parts of animals—Some
scepticism—Doctrine of occult virtue—Virtue of the flesh of
vipers—Theriac—Magical compounds—Amulets—Incantations and
characters—Belief in magic dies hard—_On Easily Procurable
Remedies_—Specimens of its superstitious contents—External signs of
the temperaments of internal organs—Marvelous statements repeated
by Maimonides—Dreams—Absence of astrology in most of Galen’s
medicine—_The Prognostication of Disease by Astrology_—Critical
days—_On the History of Philosophy_—Divination and demons—Celestial
bodies.
ἀλλ’ εἴ τις καταγνῷ μου τόδε, ὁμολογῶ τὸ πάθος τοὐμὸν ὃ παρ’ ὅλον
ἐμαυτοῦ τὸν βίον ἔπαθον, οὐδενὶ πιστεύσας τῶν διηγουμένων τὰ τοιαῦτα,
πρὶν πειραθῆναι καὶ αὐτὸς ὧν δυνατὸν ἦν εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθεῖν με.
Kühn, IV, 513.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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