Rome, Claudius Galen-the prince of physicians stands out as one of the most remarkable men in the whole history of early medicine. He was born at Pergamos 131 (A.D.), when Hadrian was Emperor. He was the son of a rich architect, and his father gave him the name of Taλnvos in the hope that he would not inherit the violent temper of his mother. Galen travelled in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, and on his return to Pergamos at the age of 28 he had charge of the wounded gladiators and athletes in the gymnasium attached to the Temple of Asclepios. At the age of thirty-four he took up his abode in Rome for the first time. He was a prolific writer. One of his merits is that he collected the works of Hippocrates and transmitted them to posterity, giving an analysis of them and indicating in his opinion those that are genuine. The phenomena of disease had been studied; in fact, Hippocrates was the natural historian of disease. Strange to say, even in the first century A.D. there existed no descriptive explanatory account of the healthy action of a human organism. Perhaps it seemed unnecessary. If so, what is to be the standard of health, and what of structure? Galen attempted to make physiology an independent science, and regarded it as the doctrine of the use of organs (usus partium). He also was the first to declare physiology to be the basis of medicine, and with him physiology first became an independent science.

For thirteen centuries the doctrine which he enunciated in things anatomical, physiological, and therapeutical practically held the field and dominated the medical world of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Nowhere save in the field of religion is there any parallel to the endurance and influence of doctrine and authority and dogma. Galen saw a purpose in every part of one's frame. Indeed, he regarded the structure and endowments of the body as a perpetual tribute and hymn to the Creator. "I hold true piety to consist, not in sacrificing to Him hecatombs and bulls, or in burning incense of cassia, or of hundreds of fragrant ointments to His honour, but rather in ascertaining for myself, and in teaching to others, something of His wisdom, His goodness, and His power. I hold it to be the most convincing evidence of His goodness that He has supplied every creature with what is most convenient for its use, and that all are supported by His bounty.

On that account it becomes us to celebrate His goodness with hymns of praise. We see, as evidence of his consumate wisdom, that He has chosen the means most appropriate for accomplishing His own designs. And seeing that He has created all things agreeably to His own will we have evidence of His Almighty power." He held to the four elements of Empedocles, and coupled with them the four qualities of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness, the four cardinal juices, blood, phlegm, black and yellow bile. In fact, he was an eclectic. He chose from the systems of his predecessors what suited him, and.so judiciously did he do it that for thirteen hundred years the Galenical physiology held the field. It is said (Preyer) the physicians accepted it because of its materialism, and the theologians because of its teleology. He experimented on living animals, especially on the pig, and solved certain problems by having recourse to vivisection. Through his writings the Aristotelian physiology and the Hippocratic pathology became part and parcel of general medicine.

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The learned Bostock sums up the achievements and describes Galen as one of those extraordinary men who are destined to form an era in science, both from the actual improvements which they have introduced into it as well as for the ascendency which their genius enables them to acquire over the minds of their contemporaries."

The works bearing most on our subject are the "De usu partium corporis humani, and Administrationes anatomicæ." In the former work are many anatomical details, mixed up with physiological opinions. It deals really with the doctrine of final causes, and was designed as a counterblast to the doctrines of Epicurus. One of the best known of these seventeen golden Galenic books is the treatise on the human hand. It also contains his hymn to the Deity. He made many discoveries in anatomy, particularly on the muscular system. He classified muscles according to their actions, and described the platysma, popliteus and certain of the hyoid muscles. The dissections were done, it appears, chiefly on apes. The liver was the origin of the veins, and the heart of the arteries. The latter contained blood, and not air, during life. He points out the corpora quadrigemina, corpus callosum, septum lucidum. Certain veins still retain the name

"Veins of Galen." Respiration consists of two periods, one inspiration and the other expiration. During expiration the grosser parts of the air are expelled from the chest along with the fuliginous vapours of the heart. The subtle part of the air passes by the pulmonary veins to the left heart, where it helps to form. the vital spirits. To Galen the muscles were the organs of voluntary movement. He exposed on an animal the flexors and extensors, and showed how they moved the bones after the manner of levers. The nerves he describes as arising from the brain and spinal cord, and not from the heart as was supposed by Aristotle. He knew from experiment that division of the main nerve in a limb resulted in loss of sensation and motion in the parts situated below the section, whilst the parts above retained both. He knew that the heart continued to beat after it was cut out of the body. He also observed it beating in the chest of living animals. He regarded the heart as the source of heat and the vital spirits, the seat of anger and violent passions. He saw the rise and fall of the brain when the skull cap was removed, and attributed it to the same cause as the movements of respiration. He imagined that the brain expanded to take in air through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone, and part of it passes out by the same openings, carrying with it the excremental humour of the brain. A portion is retained in the brain, which unites with the vital spirits. From this union arises the animal spirits, the agents of the rational soul. They reach their full perfection of elaboration in the fourth ventricle. They diffuse into brain and spinal cord, and are distributed by the nerves to all parts of the body. Besides the experiments already mentioned on living animals Galen made complete transverse and longitudinal sections of the spinal cord, section of the vagus, and of the intercostal nerves, noting the effects on respiratory movements, the heart beat, and the voice. On dividing the cord of young pigs between the 1st cervical vertebra and the occiput or between the 1st and 2nd, the animal died at once; between the 3rd and 4th, respiration ceased, while the whole trunk and limbs became motionless and insensible; between the 6th and 7th, the six muscles which pass from the neck to the thorax, and the diaphragm retained their action; between the 7th and 8th the same result obtained. The animal

breathes by the diaphragm only, and as if it had no great need for great respiratory efforts. . . on cutting the phrenic nerves which supply the diaphragm, however, the whole thorax now ceased to move.

Every student of anatomy is familiar with the word aponeurosis." It was Galen who gave that name to the membranes covering muscles, under the impression that they were concerned with the sense of touch. Galen stands midway in time during the thousand years between the foundation of Alexandria and its capture by the Saracens in 640. His authority over the medical world lasted even to the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. After the death of Galen medical and other sciences waned. Medical schools still continued

to exist in Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople. The incursions of the victorious Goths and Lombards arrested progress in Italy and France. The Alexandrian school was finally extinguished by the Saracens in 640 A.D., when they captured the city.