Biography

Galen describes his early life in On the affections of the mind. He was born in September 129
AD. His father, Aelius Nicon, was a wealthy patrician, an architect and builder, with eclectic interests
including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. Galen describes his
father as a "highly amiable, just, good and benevolent man". At that time Pergamon (modern-
day Bergama, Turkey) was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library, second only
to that in Alexandria, as well as being the site of a large temple to the healing god Asclepius. The
city attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His
studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time,
including Aristotelian and Epicurean. His father had planned a traditional career for Galen in
philosophy or politics and took care to expose him to literary and philosophical influences. However,
Galen states that in around 145 his father had a dream in which the god Asclepius appeared and
commanded Nicon to send his son to study medicine.

Contribution in Medical education

Following his earlier liberal education, Galen at age 16 began his studies at the prestigious local
healing temple or asclepeion as a therapeutes, or attendant for four years. There he came under the
influence of men like Aeschrion of Pergamon, Stratonicus and Satyrus. Asclepiea functioned as spas
or sanitoria to which the sick would come to seek the ministrations of the priesthood. Romans
frequented the temple at Pergamon in search of medical relief from illness and disease. It was also
the haunt of notable people such as the historian Claudius Charax, the orator Aelius Aristides, the
sophist Polemo, and the consul Cuspius Rufinus.
Galen's father died in 148, leaving Galen independently wealthy at the age of 19. He then followed
the advice he found in Hippocrates' teaching and traveled and studied widely including such
destinations as Smyrna (now Izmir), Corinth, Crete, Cilicia (now Çukurova), Cyprus, and finally the
great medical school of Alexandria, exposing himself to the various schools of thought in medicine.
In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia,
one of the most influential and wealthy men in Asia. Galen claims that the High Priest chose him
over other physicians after he eviscerated an ape and challenged other physicians to repair the
damage. When they refused, Galen performed the surgery himself and in so doing won the favor of
the High Priest of Asia. Over his four years there, he learned the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene,
and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and the treatment of fractures and severe
trauma, referring to their wounds as "windows into the body". Only five deaths among the gladiators
occurred while he held the post, compared to sixty in his predecessor's time, a result that is in
general ascribed to the attention he paid to their wounds. At the same time he pursued studies in
theoretical medicine and philosophy.

Contribution in Medicine

Galen contributed a substantial amount to the understanding of pathology. Under

the Hippocratic bodily humors theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of
imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen
promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments. In Galen's view, an imbalance of
each humor corresponded with a particular human temperament (blood – sanguine, black bile –
melancholic, yellow bile – choleric, and phlegm – phlegmatic). Thus, individuals with sanguine
temperaments are extroverted and social; choleric people have energy, passion, and charisma;
melancholics are creative, kind, and considerate; and phlegmatic temperaments are characterised
by dependability, kindness, and affection.
Galen was also a skilled surgeon, operating on human patients. Many of his procedures and
techniques would not be used again for centuries, such as the procedures he performed on brains
and eyes. To correct cataracts in patients, Galen performed an operation similar to a modern one.
Using a needle-shaped instrument, Galen attempted to remove the cataract-affected lens of the
eye. His surgical experiments included ligating the arteries of living animals. Although many 20th-
century historians have claimed that Galen believed the lens to be in the exact center of the eye,
Galen actually understood that the crystalline lens is located in the anterior aspect of the human eye.
At first reluctantly but then with increasing vigor, Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching,
including venesection and bloodletting, then unknown in Rome. This was sharply criticized by
the Erasistrateans, who predicted dire outcomes, believing that it was not blood but pneuma that
flowed in the veins. Galen, however, staunchly defended venesection in his three books on the
subject and in his demonstrations and public disputations. Galen's work on anatomy remained
largely unsurpassed and unchallenged up until the 16th century in Europe. In the middle of the 16th
century, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius challenged the anatomical knowledge of Galen by
conducting dissections on human cadavers. These investigations allowed Vesalius to refute aspects
of Galen's theories regarding anatomy.

Contribution in Anatomy
Galen's interest in human anatomy ran afoul of Roman law that prohibited the dissection of human
cadavers since roughly 150 BCE. Because of this restriction, Galen performed anatomical
dissections on living (vivisection) and dead animals, mostly focusing on primates. Galen believed
that the anatomical structures of these animals closely mirrored those of humans. Galen clarified the
anatomy of the trachea and was the first to demonstrate that the larynx generates the voice. In one
experiment, Galen used bellows to inflate the lungs of a dead animal.[55][56] Galen's research
on physiology was largely influenced by previous works of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, as well
as from the physician Hippocrates. He was one of the first people to use experiments as a method of
research for his medical findings. Doing so allowed him to explore various parts of the body and its
functions.
Among Galen's major contributions to medicine was his work on the circulatory system. He was the
first to recognize that there are distinct differences between venous (dark) and arterial (bright) blood.
In addition to these discoveries, Galen postulated much more about the nature of the circulatory
system. He believed that blood originated in the liver, which follows the teachings of Hippocrates.
The liver converted nutrients gathered from ingested food into blood to be used in the circulatory
system. The blood created in the liver would eventually flow unidirectionally into the right ventricle of
the heart via the great vein. Galen also proposed a theory on how blood receives air from the lungs
to be distributed throughout the body. He declared that the venous artery carried air from the lungs
into the left ventricle of the heart to mix with created blood from the liver. This same venous artery
allowed for an exchange of waste products from the blood back into the lungs to be exhaled. In order
to receive air from the lungs in the left ventricle, the new blood needed to get there from the right
ventricle. Thus, Galen asserted that there are small holes in the septum dividing the left and right
sides of the heart; these holes allowed the blood to pass through easily to receive air and exchange
the aforementioned waste products. Although his anatomical experiments on animal models led him
to a more complete understanding of the circulatory system, nervous system, respiratory system,
and other structures, his work contained scientific errors. Galen believed the circulatory system to
consist of two separate one-way systems of distribution, rather than a single unified system of
circulation. He believed venous blood to be generated in the liver, from where it was distributed and
consumed by all organs of the body. He posited that arterial blood originated in the heart, from
where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of the body. The blood was then regenerated in
either the liver or the heart, completing the cycle. Galen also believed in the existence of a group of
blood vessels he called the rete mirabile in the carotid sinus. Both of these theories of the circulation
of blood were later (beginning with works of Ibn al-Nafis published c. 1242) shown to be incorrect.[60]
Galen was also a pioneer in research about the human spine. His dissections and vivisections of
animals led to key observations that helped him accurately describe the human spine, spinal cord,
and vertebral column. Galen also played a major role in the discoveries of the Central Nervous
System. He was also able to describe the nerves that emerge from the spine, which is integral to his
research about the nervous system. Galen went on to be the first physician to study what happens
when the spinal cord is transected on multiple different levels. He worked with pigs and studied
their neuroanatomy by severing different nerves either totally or partially to see how it affected the
body. He even dealt with diseases affecting the spinal cord and nerves. In his work De motu
musculorum, Galen explained the difference between motor and sensory nerves, discussed the
concept of muscle tone, and explained the difference between agonists and antagonists.
Galen's work on animals led to some inaccuracies, most notably his anatomy of the uterus which
largely resembled a dog's. Though incorrect in his studies of human reproduction and reproductive
anatomy, he came very close to identifying the ovaries as analogous to the male
testes. Reproduction was a controversial topic in Galen's lifetime, as there was much debate over if
the male was solely responsible for the seed, or if the woman was also responsible.
Through his vivisection practices, Galen also proved that the voice was controlled by the brain. One
of the most famous experiments that he recreated in public was the squealing pig: Galen would cut
open a pig, and while it was squealing he would tie off the recurrent laryngeal nerve, or vocal cords,
showing they controlled the making of sound. He used the same method to tie off the ureters to
prove his theories of kidney and bladder function. Galen believed the human body had three
interconnected systems that allowed it to work. The first system that he theorized consisted of the
brain and the nerves, responsible for thought and sensation. The second theorized system was the
heart and the arteries, which Galen believed to be responsible for providing life-giving energy. The
last theorized system was the liver and veins, which Galen theorized were responsible for nutrition
and growth. Galen also theorized that blood was made in the liver and sent out around the body.

Later years
Galen continued to work and write in his final years, finishing treatises on drugs and remedies as
well as his compendium of diagnostics and therapeutics, which would have much influence as a
medical text both in the Latin Middle Ages and Medieval Islam.
The 11th-century Suda lexicon states that Galen died at the age of 70, which would place his death
in about the year 199. However, there is a reference in Galen's treatise "On Theriac to Piso" (which
may, however, be spurious) to events of 204. There are also statements in Arabic sources that he
died in Sicily at age 87, after 17 years studying medicine and 70 practicing it, which would mean he
died about 216. According to these sources, the tomb of Galenus in Palermo was still well preserved
in the tenth century. Nutton] believes that "On Theriac to Piso" is genuine, that the Arabic sources
are correct, and that the Suda has erroneously interpreted the 70 years of Galen's career in the
Arabic tradition as referring to his whole lifespan. Boudon-Millot more or less concurs and favors a
date of 216.