An Epitome of the History of Medicine — John Shaqi
An Epitome of the History of MedicinePark, Roswell
History
An Epitome of the History of Medicine
Park, Roswell
Medicine -- History
the rational, which resides in the brain. He divided diseases of the
solids of the body into what he called distempers; he distinguished
between the continued and intermittent fevers, regarding the quotidian
as being caused by phlegm, the tertian as due to yellow bile, and the
quartan as due to atrabile. In the doctrine of coction, crises, and
critical days he agreed with Hippocrates; with him he also agreed in the
positive statement that diseases are cured by their contraries. From all
this it will be seen that Galen must be regarded as one of the earliest
of Hippocratic dogmatists. He was a most extensive writer, and it
is said that the total number of his works exceeded one hundred. His
contributions to anatomy were not insignificant. For myology he did a
great deal. He wrote a monograph on the skeleton in which he recommended
that bones be seen and handled, not merely studied from books, and that
the student should go to Alexandria, where teachers would place before
him the real human skeleton. It has been inferred that there was not, in
his time, in Rome a single skeleton. He wrote fifteen books on anatomy,
of which six are lacking; also an extensive treatise on the lesions of
the human body, distributed among seventeen books which have come down
to us. He is supposed to have introduced the term "symphysis," and he
described nearly every bone in the human body. By him the muscles were
no longer considered as inert masses and tissue-layers{040} serving
to cover the bones, but he classified them according to their distinct
functions, and studied separately their form and uses. The location of
the vessels and nerves between them was also noted, and it was proved
that muscles were indispensable to the accomplishment of voluntary
motions. Galen was, perhaps, the first vivisector of all, since he
exposed muscles of living animals, and showed how alternate tension and
relaxation of distinct groups set the bones in motion, after the manner
of levers; he named a great number of them, but, curiously, took no note
of others. His classification according to their uses is followed down
to the present day--i.e., flexors, extensors, etc.
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