THE GREAT ONES
Galen
V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
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Galen's (130 A.D. - 201 A.D.) medical findings influenced western medical science for nearly 15 centuries.
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ILLUSTRATION: V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
Galen (his full name was Claudius Galenus) was the Greek physician, who lived in the second century, whose medical findings influenced western medical science for nearly 15 centuries.
Galen was born in 130 A.D. in Pergamon in Asia Minor. He dissected animals and drew conclusions on the human anatomy. He also worked with gladiators; dressing their wounds, he learnt about muscle structures and the spinal cord.
Though some of Galen's theories were wrong, there is no doubt that he was the last great doctor before the dark ages.
Prolific writer
During his medical practice at Rome, Galen once attended on the wife of a Roman aristocrat, whose illness could not be cured by other doctors. He took her pulse and mentioned the name of her lover. Immediately, her pulse beat faster. He then whispered a joke in her ear and she laughed. That laugh began her cure. This is considered one of the earliest cases of psychiatric treatment for a psychosomatic illness!
Galen was a prolific writer. He wrote more than 300 books on human anatomy and physiology.
Galen believed that everything in the universe was made by God for a particular purpose. This search for God's design not only in the universe but in the human body made his work and writings appealing and popular.
The words of Marcus Aurelius, who was a contemporary of Galen and whose royal physician Galen was, best expresses Galen's life and work: "I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed."
This is an extract from the book The Great Ones by V.K.Subramanian, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi
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