North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826Various
History
North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals
GALEN may perhaps be justly regarded as an eclectic; but it is manifest,
that he mainly walked after the steps of his great predecessor, and
recognised model. The following passage seems to contain ideas not much
differing from those of HIPPOCRATES which we have presented above: "Who
is there, says he, that judging from the origin and constitution of
animated beings, doth not immediately infer the existence of a mind,
possessed of wonderful energies, extending to, and pervading every
portion of the universe! We every where perceive animals procreated,
which are possessed of the most admirable structure, and yet what
portion of the universe can be more ignoble than this earth of ours? Yet
a grand intelligence is seen to have reached even it from the celestial
bodies, which for their beauty are so astonishing, and which, as they
are for purity far more excellent than our earth, so they are the seats
of intelligences, far more pure and perfect than those which inhabit
these lower regions." He proceeds to remark, that animals, worthy of the
greatest admiration, are produced out of the slime and mud of ponds and
ditches, and even in putrefying vegetables, which, as they indicate the
miraculous properties of their author, also show us in what estimation
we should hold the higher orders of being. "We may even perceive a
rational nature in men, if we refer to such examples as PLATO,
ARISTOTLE, HIPPARCHUS, ARCHIMEDES, and many others. If, therefore, in
such a colluvies as the human body, (for by what better name can we
characterize a mixture of blood, bile, and phlegm,) a mind is formed of
such great and excellent faculties, what must we think of the excellence
of that which exists in the superior bodies?"
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