Galen and Hippocrates, Greek Physicians

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. Hippocrates (460-370 BC), a Greek physician who is generally considered to be the father of medicine, although little is actually known about him. His influence survives in the Hippocratic oath, a code of medical ethics some medical students take on completion of their training. He founded a medical school on the Aegean island of Cos, where his ideas on medical conduct and practice were implemented. He advocated a rational approach to medicine, believing that disease was caused by physical phenomenon and not by the interference of the gods

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Aelius Anatomist Aurelius Claudius Ethics Galen Galenus Gladiators Hippocrates Hippocratic Hippokrates Oath Pathologist Pathology Pergamon Philosophy Physiologist Physiology Polymath Rational Reasoning Surgeon

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