Galen, Greek Physician and Philosopher

Galen Conversio. Galen studying a pile of bones lying on the ground. Etching from 1796-97. Galen (131-201) was born in Pergamos in Asia Minor. After receiving medical training in Smyrna and Alexandria, he gained fame as a surgeon to the gladiators of Pergamos. He was eventually summoned to Rome to be the physician of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Galen spent the rest of his life at the Court writing an enormous corpus of medical works. Taking Hippocrates notions of the humors and pathology, Galen incorporated the anatomical knowledge of noted Alexandrians. A supporter of observation and reasoning, he was one of the first experimental physiologists, researching the function of the kidneys and the spinal cord in controlled experiments. Galen's works in many ways came to symbolize Greek medicine to the medical scholars of Europe and the Middle East for the next fifteen centuries. The most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy, and logic

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