Galen, physician of ancient Rome. Claudius Galen is a great physician and no less great writer of Ancient Rome. Claudius Galen short biography

A great doctor and an equally great writer Ancient Rome Claudius Galen (Galenus - calm) was born in Pergamum1, a state located in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. In all likelihood, he did not bear the name Claudius. It appeared as a result of an incorrectly deciphered title “most luminous”, “most glorious” (Clarissimus, abbreviated as Cl.), which was printed on his works starting from the Middle Ages.

Galen received his initial education from his father Nikon, who became famous as a philosopher, mathematician and architect. Galen studied philosophy from the age of 15, and of the ancient thinkers, Aristotle had the greatest influence on him. Galen's father wanted to make his son a philosopher, but a dream that once visited his father, and the Romans attached great importance to it, forced Galen to take up medicine. Having chosen the specialty of a doctor, he studied medicine in detail under the guidance of Pergamon scientists: the anatomist Satyricus, the pathologist Strotonik, Eschrion, Empiricus, Fitzian and other prominent learned doctors of Pergamon.

After the death of his father, Galen undertook a journey during which he studied anatomy in Smyrna. His teacher was the famous anatomist Pelops (Pelops ous Smyrna, 100 AD), who proposed the term "aura" - a Greek word meaning a light breeze or breath. He believed that this breeze passed through the vessels. There, under the guidance of Albin, Galen studied philosophy. Later he went to Corinth, where he studied with the students of the famous Quintus, studying natural history and medicine. Then he traveled around Asia Minor. Finally, he ended up in the famous Alexandria, where he diligently studied anatomy with Heraklion. Here he became acquainted with the once famous medical school and the works of its prominent representatives - Herophilus and Erasistratus. By the time Galen visited Alexandria, dissecting human bodies was prohibited here. The structure and functions of organs have been studied in monkeys and other mammals. Disappointed, Galen returned to Pergamon after six years of travel.

In his native Pergamon, 29-year-old Galen was a surgeon at the gladiator school for 4 years and became famous for his art of treating wounds, dislocations and fractures. When an uprising broke out in the city in 164, 33-year-old Galen went to Rome, where he soon became popular as an educated lecturer and an experienced physician. He became known to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, became close to the Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus, famous in Rome, and he glorified Galen, who cured him, as a skilled physician. The Roman patrician Batius, together with Galen's friends, insisted on opening a course of lectures on anatomy, and Galen read them in the Temple of Peace to a large audience of doctors and citizens interested in science. Among the listeners were the emperor's uncle Barbara, the consul Lucius Severus, who later became emperor, praetors, scientists, philosophers Eudemus and Alexander from Damascus. It should be noted that Galen was always and everywhere looking for an opportunity to attract attention to himself, as a result of which he made enemies for himself, burned by the passion to get rid of a dangerous rival. Frightened by the revenge of envious people, Galen left Rome and undertook a trip to Italy. Then he visited Pergamon and visited his mentor Pelops in Smyrna. He explained the reason for his departure either by the noisy life in Rome, or by the hostile attitude of some doctors, but mainly by the fear of the Roman plague.

At the invitation of Emperor Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius, Galen returned to Rome again two years later through Macedonia. Emperor Marcus Aurelius summoned Galen to his military camp in the city of Aquileia on the Adriatic Sea. Together with the Roman troops, Galen returned to Rome. Galen refused to accompany the emperor on the German campaign. He lived in constant anxiety, changing his place of residence one after another, fleeing mostly from ghostly enemies, whose intentions he clearly exaggerated. He ended up settling in the palace of Marcus Aurelius and becoming his family physician. One night he was urgently summoned to the emperor, who complained of being unwell. The doctors could not give the emperor the necessary advice and only frightened him with their diagnoses. Galen reassured the patient by advising him to drink Sabine wine infused with pepper. The next day, Galen heard from Philolaus that the author of the Meditations now considered him not only “the first among doctors, but the only physician-philosopher.”

Under the patronage of Marcus Aurelius, Galen was appointed physician to his son, the future Roman emperor Commodus (161-192), who participated in gladiator battles and was killed by conspirators from among the courtiers. Galen cured Faustina's son. To her words of gratitude, he replied: “Unwittingly, thanks to this, the hostility that your doctors harbor against me will intensify even more.” The consciousness of his dignity in the art of medicine never left the proud Galen. Galen considered his worthy opponent to be perhaps the only physician, Asclepiad of Bithynia (128-56 BC), who studied in Alexandria with Cleophantus and then practiced on the island of Paros, on the banks of the Hellespont, in Athens, before settling in Rome. Asclepiades rebelled against the ancient custom of the Romans: periodic cleansing with laxatives and emetics.

In Rome, Galen wrote several treatises on medicine; among them “On the purpose of parts of the human body”, as well as “Anatomy”. Unfortunately, most of his manuscripts were lost during the fire of the Temple of Peace, when the entire Palatine Library burned down. The Temple of Peace was a kind of treasury, where military leaders kept trophies, rich people kept jewelry, and Galen kept manuscripts.

In his old age, Galen returned to Pergamon to continue working on treatises on medicine in peace and quiet. Galen lived to an old age and died during the reign of Septimius Severus. This is, in brief, the personality and biography of the great Galen.

Now let's look at his contribution to medicine. Galen can rightfully be called the creator of etiology as a science, since he systematized the doctrine of the causes of diseases of his time. He divided pathogenic factors into ingesta (alluvial), circumfusa (solid, mechanical), excreta (liquid, pouring), causing growth, etc. He was the first to point out that the disease develops from the influence of causal factors on the corresponding predisposing state of the patient’s body. Galen called internal pathogenic factors “preparing” the body for the development of disease. Galen divided diseases into external and internal, their causes - into causes of immediate and remote action. He showed that anatomy and physiology are the basis of scientific diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

For the first time in the history of medicine, Galen introduced experiment into practice, and therefore he can be considered one of the predecessors of experimental physiology. While studying the function of the lungs and the breathing mechanism in an experiment, he found that the diaphragm and pectoral muscles expand the chest, drawing air into the lungs. Galen wrote a lot about the functions of individual organs. Some of his views, for example on blood circulation, the digestive and respiratory systems, were erroneous. He described many details of the structure of the human body, gave names to some bones, joints and muscles, which have been preserved in medicine to this day.

Galen introduced vivisection and animal experiments into medicine, and for the first time developed a technique for dissecting the brain. Experiments were carried out on pigs, cows, etc. It should be especially emphasized that Galen never performed autopsies on a human corpse; all his anatomical ideas were built by analogy with the structure of the body of animals. He proceeded from the words of his idol Aristotle: “Much is unknown or raises doubts about the structure of human internal organs, therefore it is necessary to study them in other animals, whose organs are similar to human ones.” While treating gladiators, Galen was able to significantly expand his anatomical knowledge, which in general suffered from many errors.

Galen was one of the first to experimentally establish the absence of pain when cutting the brain matter. He studied the veins of the brain and described in detail the inferior vena cava, which bears his name, which collects blood from the lower extremities, walls and organs of the pelvis, from the walls abdominal cavity, from the diaphragm, some abdominal organs (liver, kidneys, adrenal glands), from the gonads, the spinal cord and its membranes (partially).

Galen contributed to the description nervous system person, indicating that it is a branched trunk, each of the branches of which lives an independent life. Nerves are made of the same substance as the brain. They serve sensation and movement. Galen distinguished between sensitive, “soft” nerves that go to organs, and “hard” nerves associated with muscles, through which voluntary movements are performed. He pointed to the optic nerve and established that this nerve passes into the retina of the eye.

Galen considered the brain, heart and liver to be the organs of the soul. Each of them was assigned one of the mental functions according to the division of parts of the soul proposed by Plato: the liver is the bearer of lust, the heart is the bearer of anger and courage, the brain is the bearer of reason. In the brain, the main role was assigned to the ventricles, especially the posterior one, where, according to Galen, highest form pneuma, corresponding to the mind, which is an essential feature of man, just as locomotion (which has its own “soul” or pneuma) is typical of animals, and growth (again implying a special pneuma) is typical of plants. Galen devoted a lot of attention to the hypothetical “pneuma”, which supposedly penetrates matter and revives the human body. Galen's doctrine of temperaments was further developed. It, like Hippocrates, was based on the humoral concept.

Galen also gave a place to practical medicine. In his works they found a place of illness large number organs of the human body; eye diseases are described in detail; a number of practical tips on therapeutic exercises and recommendations on how to apply compresses, apply leeches, and operate wounds. He treated people with electricity, using the living power plants of the inhabitants of the deep sea - fish. Treatment for migraines, according to Galen, consisted of instilling fumogenic juice with oil and vinegar into the nose.

Quoted by Galen and whole line recipes for powders, ointments, tinctures, extracts and pills. His recipes, in a slightly modified form, are still used today and are called “galenic preparations” - medicines, manufactured by processing plant or animal raw materials and extracting active principles from them. Galenic preparations include tinctures, extracts, liniments, syrups, waters, oils, alcohols, soaps, plasters, mustard plasters. Galen developed the recipe for the still used cosmetic product “cold cream”, which consists of essential oil, wax and rose water.

The teaching and literary activity of Galen, enormous in scope and influence, which largely determined the development of European medicine up to the Renaissance, is imbued with the leading thought about the identity of medicine and philosophy (cf. Galen’s programmatic essay “On the fact that the best doctor is at the same time a philosopher "). Philosophizing in those days meant communication with people initiated into the secrets of the universe and human nature - communication combined with learning. In the Hellenistic era, the main theme of education was the art of living. Often it acquired a psychotherapeutic character: the philosopher became a confessor - a healer of the soul. The need for such healers was enormous; it was necessary to give a person the opportunity to cope with anxieties, negative emotions, fear and various, as we would now say, “stressful conditions.” The philosopher occupied a position similar in many respects to the role of the modern priest. He was invited to consult when discussing difficult moral problems.

Galen wrote over 400 treatises, including 200 on medicine, of which about 100 treatises survived, the rest were burned during a fire in Rome. Galen compiled a dictionary and commentary on the writings of Hippocrates. He introduced many new Greek names, clarified the meanings of old ones, and revived some almost forgotten or obscure Hippocratic designations for his contemporaries. Galen reduced the use of the word diaphragma to the single meaning of “abdominal obstruction” and assigned the anatomical meaning of “nerve ganglion” to the word ganglion, which meant a tumor-like formation. Galen managed to make the name sternon unambiguous - sternum. He clarified the formal and substantive aspects of the term anastomosis. He is the author of the names thalamus - lat. thalamus (visual thalamus of the brain), phleps azygos - lat. vena azygos (gypsy vein), cremaster (muscle that lifts the testicle), peristaltike kinesis - peristalsis, etc.

The idealistic orientation of Galen's writings contributed to the transformation of his teaching into the so-called Galenism, canonized by the church and dominant in medicine for many centuries. Galen occupies a completely exceptional place in the history of medicine. For centuries, only the creator of the humoral theory and the so-called rational medicine, Galen, was read, and only his authoritative opinion was listened to. His teaching reigned supreme for 14 centuries, until the Renaissance.

And then a brave man was found who dared to overturn this idol. It was Paracelsus. He was of the opinion that since the time of Hippocrates, medicine had not made a single step forward, and also dared to assert that Galen had led it away from the normal path of development and, moreover, pushed it back, darkening the sober ideas of Hippocrates with the vague ideas of Plato. Galen's authority was shaken and then overthrown, mainly after the appearance of the treatise “On the Structure of the Human Body” by Vesalius.

Galen was born around 130 AD. e. in the city of Pergamon. His father, Nikon, a wealthy man, was a famous architect, well versed in mathematics and philosophy. In order to give his son the best possible education, he first taught him himself, and then invited prominent Pergamon scientists to be his teachers. At the age of 15, Galen began studying philosophy, but already at 18 he became seriously involved in medicine.

Among his teachers were several outstanding Greek physicians of that time - Satyr, Fician, Stratonicus. In 150 he wrote a philosophical treatise On Medical Experience, which is preserved in an Arabic translation. Then he studied for some time in Smyrna; After visiting Greece, he went to study anatomy in Alexandria, the main center of Greek science and medicine, where the practice of dissecting human corpses began under the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty ca. 300 BC e.

For some time Galen worked in Alexandria, improving his knowledge of medicine and devoting Special attention study of the human skeleton. After returning to Pergamon in 157, he became a physician to gladiators and athletes. He gained extensive experience in practical medicine and surgery and began conducting physiological experiments. Around 159, through experiments on pigs, Galen discovered the functions of the nerves that control the voice: for example, by tightening or loosening ligatures, he could regulate the activity of these nerves. Around the same time, he studied the complex structure and functions of the muscles involved in breathing.

In 162, already having a solid reputation, Galen left Pergamon to work in Rome. Galen was an extremely successful practicing physician; he often undertook to treat those patients whom other doctors rejected as hopeless. He had many students, performed dissections and experimented. We know of several famous patients of his in Rome. Among them were Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Roman praetor and future governor of Palestine.

Four years later, Galen travels to Greece (such trips are typical of that era) and, for unclear reasons, again remains in Pergamon. However, when a plague epidemic began among the troops in Aquileia in 168, the emperor sent for Galen. He immediately arrives and then returns to Rome with the emperor as the personal physician of his eleven-year-old son and heir Commodus.

Judging by scientific works Galen, the next six years were the most productive of his life. Responsibilities at court did not take up much time, he could calmly study with students, visit patients and conduct experiments and dissections. In 175, Commodus went to the East, where his father was then, and Galen maintained a constant and very successful practice in Rome. Three years later, Emperor Marcus Aurelius died, and in 192 Commodus was killed.

Galen wisely returns to Pergamum. There he completed his last great work and compiled a catalog of his own works. This is the most valuable source of data about his life, and is often considered one of the first autobiographies known in literature; in any case, this is undoubtedly the first autobiography of a doctor. Galen died in Rome or Pergamum ca. 200.

Described about 300 human muscles. He proved that it is not the heart, but the brain and spinal cord that are “the center of movement, sensitivity and mental activity.” He concluded that “without a nerve there is not a single part of the body, not a single movement called voluntary, not a single feeling.” By cutting the spinal cord across, Galen showed the disappearance of sensitivity in all parts of the body lying below the cut site. He proved that blood moves through the arteries, and not “pneuma,” as previously thought.

He created about 400 works on philosophy, medicine and pharmacology, of which about a hundred have reached us.

Described the quadrigeminal midbrain, seven pairs of cranial nerves, and the vagus nerve; Conducting experiments on transection of the spinal cord of pigs, he demonstrated the functional difference between the anterior (motor) and posterior (sensitive) roots of the spinal cord.

Based on observations of the absence of blood in the left parts of the heart of killed animals and gladiators, as well as holes in the interventricular septum that he discovered while dissecting the corpses of premature babies, he created the first theory of blood circulation in the history of physiology (according to it, it was believed, in particular, that arterial and venous blood are liquids are different, and if the first “spreads movement, warmth and life,” the second is called upon to “nourish the organs”), which existed until the discoveries of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey.

Galen systematized the ideas of ancient medicine in the form of a single doctrine, which was theoretical basis medicine until the end of the Middle Ages. Galen contributed to the development of bibliography in ancient Rome. He is the author of two bibliographic indexes: “On the order of his own books”, “On his own books”. The first of them is a kind of introduction to the collected works of Galen with recommendations on the order in which they should be read. The introduction to the second index states the purpose of the work: to help the reader distinguish the true works of Galen from those attributed to him. The chapters adopt a systematic grouping of works: works on anatomy, therapy and prognosis of the disease, comments on the works of Hippocrates, works directed against individual medical schools, works on philosophy, grammar and rhetoric.

Laid the beginning of pharmacology. Until now, “galenic preparations” are called tinctures and ointments prepared in certain ways.

The collected works of Galen that have survived to our time exceed in volume all the medical works written before him; for us they are the main source of information on ancient medicine. Most of the works of that era, with the exception of those that survived under the name of Hippocrates, have been lost. And the medical works written after Galen are mostly based on his works or are simply repetitions or compilations of them.

Usually his works are referred to by a single “modern” edition, which claims to be relatively complete. This is a publication by K. Kühn (1754-1840) in 22 volumes, published in 1821-1833. It includes 122 individual works. After the publication of this edition, a number of Galen's works were discovered. Many of his works are completely lost; some have come down to us only in Arabic translations made in the 9th or 10th centuries. medic galen antique pneuma

Both in the East and in the West, Galen was considered an indisputable authority almost until the 16th century. Without a doubt, his writings significantly influenced the development of medicine. Particularly authoritative in the Middle Ages was his huge work The Method of Healing (Demethodomedendi), also known as the Great Science (Latin Arsmagna, Greek “Mega Techne”), which existed in several abbreviated versions.

It was this, in a more or less vulgarized form, that formed the basis of the education of medieval doctors. However, starting from the 17th century. this book had almost no influence on medicine: only some of the valuable herbal preparations mentioned in it, called “galenic”, remained in use.

Books on anatomy and physiology contain extensive factual material and are closest to science in spirit. They also had the greatest influence: translated into Latin and published in the 16th century, these works became the basis for the development of modern scientific medicine. Many terms in modern medical language directly go back to Galen or to the Latin translations of his works.

Other works are devoted to pathology, hygiene, issues of dietetics and therapy, and pharmacology. There are commentaries on the works of Hippocrates, polemical works on medicine, works on philosophy, logic and philology. Many of his medical writings were of great importance in the Middle Ages, but his contribution to the development modern medicine They contributed only books on anatomy, physiology, hygiene and pathology.

Worldview and theories of Galen. Galen believed in one God the creator; all his scientific activity was imbued with the consciousness of the divinity of the creation of all nature and, first of all, man. Galen believed that everything in the structure of the human body, down to the smallest detail, was created by God. Galen's favorite example to prove this was the human hand. Every muscle, tendon, nerve, bone, blood vessel created, in his opinion, as perfectly as possible.

Galen devoted many pages of his enormous work On the Purpose of Parts of the Human Body (Deusupartium corporis humani) to discussions about the hand. True, the descriptions available here refer more to the limb of a rhesus monkey than to a human hand. Galen knew the human skeleton well, but he caused confusion in human anatomy by trying to “hang” the muscular system of a monkey on the human skeleton.

The doctrine of pneuma. Those theories of Galen, which we would now call physiological, were also associated with his religious views. He firmly believed in the existence of pneuma, that is, “spirit” or “breath of life.” He believed that the world is full of pneuma, which, when breathing, is drawn into the body, and also that when the world's pneuma ceases to be inhaled, a person or other Living being die. Once in the liver, food is processed there into “natural spirit” (Greek “pneuumaphusikon”).

Blood from the liver goes to all parts of the body and to the heart, where it passes through pores (not actually existing) in the septum separating the left and right ventricles. There it mixes with the “world spirit” and turns into the “vital spirit” (lat. spiritus vitalalis), and passing from the left ventricle into the arterial system and then into the brain, it enters the “wonderful network” (lat. retemirabile) (also non-existent) , where it turns into a “soul spirit” (lat. spiritusanimalis), distributed along the nerves, which were mistakenly considered hollow vessels.

Hippocrates' teaching about the four "humours". Galen also adhered to the teachings of Hippocrates about the four juices (humors), which correspond to four types of temperament. These are blood (sanguine), phlegm (phlegmatic), black bile (melancholic), yellow bile (choleric). Galen correlated these juices with the four classical primary elements: earth, air, fire and water.

Basic works. Galen's anatomical views are most fully presented in his great work On Anatomy (Deanatomicis administrationibus). Initially it included 16 books, of which only the first nine have reached us. Greek, others are preserved in Arabic translations. An appendix to this work is a short treatise on bones.

This is the only ancient anatomical work directly based on the study of human anatomy in an era when dissection of the human body was prohibited. The descriptions are highly accurate; the descriptions of the skull bones are especially valuable. Galen considers teeth to be bones and gives a completely plausible version of their origin. It has 24 vertebrae located above the sacrum, which is considered the most important bone of the spinal column, and gives accurate and detailed descriptions ribs, sternum, collarbone and limb bones.

Galen identified two main types of joints, calling them diarthrosis and synarthrosis. The first are movable joints, the second are fixed joints, such as the sutures of the skull. These terms, like many others, have been preserved in modern medical nomenclature. There is no doubt that Galen's work on the muscle system was largely innovative. He wrote a special book On muscle movement (Demotumusculorum). It is probably the muscles that are described with the greatest accuracy in his works. Galen's writings often refer to the form and function of the muscles of various animals. Thus, the muscles of the orbit and larynx are described using the example of a bull, and the muscles of the tongue - using the example of a monkey. Often he notes the differences between certain animal muscles he describes and the corresponding human muscles.

Galen's descriptions of the brain are less original than his descriptions of muscles or experiments with the spinal cord. Obviously, most often he had in mind the brain of the bull, since he pays special attention to the “wonderful network”, which is well developed in this animal, but absent in humans.

Experiments with complete or partial cutting of the spinal cord at different levels are described clearly and accurately, they were the basis modern research central nervous system. The scientist knew about the existence of ganglia (nerve ganglia) and traced the sympathetic nervous system in all its elements.

Blood vessels are described worse by Galen than bones, muscles or the nervous system. He dedicated to them a special work on the anatomy of veins and arteries (Devenarumarteriarumquedissectione), but false ideas about blood circulation hampered research in this area. Following Hippocrates, the venous system was compared to a tree whose roots come from the abdominal organs. The trunk is the large vein of the chest and abdominal cavity, the branches are in the lungs and other parts of the body; Particularly important is the branch that we now call the right ventricle.

The veins appear to emerge from the liver. Galen had a sound idea of general direction blood flow in the veins. He believed that the veins receive nutrition from the intestines and carry it to the liver through the “gate” (Greek “pule”, Lat. porta), hence modern name"portal vein". He had clear ideas about the veins of the brain, and some of them still bear his name. The attention that Galen pays to the superficial veins may seem excessive to the modern reader.

Galen gave a comparative description of the arteries. The “roots” of the arterial system come from the arterial vein (in the lungs), which we now call the pulmonary artery. The left ventricle and aorta are considered as a trunk from which branches arise. Galen noticed that arteries have much thicker walls than veins.

He proved that his anatomist predecessors, who believed that arteries contained air or pneuma, or both, and that blood entered them only after an incision, were mistaken. To do this, Galen performed a highly visual experiment: he opened the artery to a sufficient length and tied it up in two places, and then cut it between two ligatures, after which blood flowed. It could not pass through the dressings, which means it had to be in the artery before they were applied.

From the 16th century it was known that Galen performed most of his dissections on monkeys and that they were the ones described by him in his practical treatise On Anatomy. Subsequently, the question of whether he performed autopsies on human bodies was repeatedly discussed. In a number of places Galen mentions human autopsies, in others there is a hint that he performed them himself.

Galen had many students, but due to the troubled times that followed, his work was not continued. With his death, the development of experimental physiology stopped for at least 1300 years.

Galen, having become a popular doctor and supervising patients from the Roman nobility, did not refuse help to poor patients. The Roman patrician Boethius, together with Galen's friends, insisted on opening a course of lectures on anatomy, and Galen read them in the Temple of Peace to a large audience of citizens and representatives of medicine interested in science.

At his lectures, Galen demonstrated dissections of various animals. At the same time, he experienced a severe shock - the loss of his manuscripts, which were burned during a fire in the Temple of Peace, where the entire Palatine Library stored there also perished. In Rome, Galen wrote many works, including his main anatomical and physiological work “De usu partium corporis humani” - “On the purpose of the parts of the human body.” He is the author of more than 125 works. Galen, a universal scientist, wrote not only medical treatises, but also philosophical, mathematical and legal works. About 80 medical works belonging to him have reached us. They relate to anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, therapy, hygiene, dietetics, obstetrics and embryology. He wrote his works in Greek, and his language research work interesting for a linguist. Galen carefully studied anatomy and in his studies sought to rely on facts obtained through anatomy. He wrote: “It is necessary to know exactly the functions and, above all, the structure of each part, by examining the facts revealed by anatomy and by personal observation; after all, now the books of those who call themselves anatomists are replete with thousands of errors” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book II, chapter VII).

Galen also wrote: “Whoever wants to contemplate the creatures of nature should not trust works on anatomy, but should rely on his own eyes, either by visiting us or someone from those who usually work with us, or should independently engage in anatomy for the love of science "(On the purpose of parts of the human body, book II, chapter III).

About the scientists who brought up Galen’s views, he said: “Be lenient with previous anatomists if a difficult fact has escaped their gaze” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book VII, chapter XIV).

Galen attached great importance great importance studying the anatomy and physiology of animals based on their own experience. These works are especially important in his extensive scientific heritage.

Galen considered nature to be the main source of knowledge, the infallible teacher of truth. All his work is a hymn to nature.

Galen wrote more than once: “Everything created by nature is excellent.” “Listen to the words that describe the amazing secrets of nature.” Naturalist Galen zealously studied nature. Galen's path of research aspirations was completely correct and advanced for his time.

Galen's predecessors and contemporaries, explaining the origin of the world, considered deity to be the “creator of all things.” Galen preferred another term - “demiurge”, which was the name given to a leading official in some Greek republics.

Galen's in-depth research into the study of the animal and human body was a huge shift in the development of medical science.

Galen carried out all his research primarily on the corpses of various animals: dogs, pigs, bears, single-hoofed animals, ruminants, and especially monkeys, mainly lower ones. Due to the cult laws of the Romans, which prohibited autopsies of the dead, he was forced to resort to the study of animal organs, comparing them with the organs of the human body. These occasional opportunities for comparison were rare. Galen was able to study human anatomy on the corpses of those killed in war, on bodies condemned to be eaten by wild animals, when studying the wounds of gladiators and on the corpses of secretly born babies thrown into the street. The difficulty of obtaining human corpses and examining them was the reason for many of Galen's mistakes in describing the organs of the human body.

Galen's great merit was that he recognized and often corrected his own mistakes and the mistakes of other anatomists. He wrote: “How dare you say that a monkey in everything (my italics - V.T.) is similar to a person” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book I, chapter XX). He dreamed of the opportunity to study and correctly describe the structure of the human body. In his work “De usu partium corporis humani” he wrote: “Among these short-necked living creatures is man, whose structure is our real goal to describe” (“On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body,” Book VIII, Chapter I). This was the main goal of his anatomical research.

If Galen did not manage to fully carry out the planned work, then his great merit is that he gave a detailed, systematic description of all the anatomical structures he studied.

One of Galen's main works, De anatomia (On Anatomy), consists of 16 books; Nine of them have reached us. These books were written in Greek, which at that time was the generally accepted language in science. In this study Galen gives a consistent and Full description body structure.

Along with a large number of morphological observations, studies and discoveries, Galen also took one of the first places in the application of the experimental method to study anatomy. The anatomical views are presented in some detail; all departments are developed, but not equally fully. Osteology, which he studied back in Alexandril, has been studied in more detail. Describing the bones, Galen noted that in a living organism they are covered with a membrane - the periosteum. He distinguished long bones in the skeleton, having a canal with bone marrow, and the bones are flat, lacking a canal. In bones, he described apophyses, diaphyses and epiphyses. True, Galen did not understand the term “diaphysis” in the same way as we currently understand it. The first two terms have reached our time in Galen’s interpretation. The Galenic term trochanter (trochanter) has been preserved and entered into anatomical terminology.

In his morphological descriptions, Galen described the skull relatively correctly; he also noted the merit of Hippocrates, who described four forms of the head (skull) and each of the sutures, which Galen wrote about in his main work “On the Purpose of Parts of the Human Body.”

Galen considered teeth to be skeletal bones. He studied the origin of teeth and described this in his anatomical treatise.

In the axial skeleton - the spine - Galen described 24 human vertebrae, which pass into the sacrum and coccygeal bones. On the lumbar vertebra, Galen found a process inherent in monkeys and absent in humans. Galen considers the sacrum to be the most important supporting bone, but describes it as consisting of three fragments, i.e., as he saw it in pigs. Galen correctly described the collarbone, ribs and other human bones, but he described the chest not from the human skeleton, but from the skeletons of animals. He believed that the sternum consists of seven parts and triangular cartilage, i.e., like in dogs.

Galen described the bones of the upper and lower extremities. His conscientious osteological descriptions still contain inevitable inaccuracies.

As for Galen's teachings about the connections of bones, he noted and named two types of connections: diarthrosis - movable joints and synarthrosis - immobile. He divided diarthrosis into anarthrosis, arthrosis and ginglyma. Galen divided synarthrosis into sutures, gomphoses and flat fusions, such as the symphysis of the pubic bones. This classification of Galen is accepted for joints in modern anatomy. But still, in Galen’s descriptions there are many inaccuracies, especially in the description of the human ligamentous and articular apparatus.

Galen made a great contribution to the study of the active apparatus of movement. Galen wrote a treatise entitled “On the Anatomy of Muscles.” In his myological treatise, Galen was one of the first researchers to systematically and systematically study the anatomy of muscles.

The lack of anatomical nomenclature, which was developed only in the 16th century in the works of Jacques Dubois-Sylvius (1478-1555) and Adrian Spigelius (1578-1625), greatly complicates the understanding of Galen's texts describing muscles. Galen described about 300 muscles. He correctly described the muscles of the eye, but did not describe the trochlear muscle. Galen studied the muscles of the neck, back, larynx, and chewing muscles. The term "masseter" was proposed by Galen in the same way as the term "cremaster".

Galen was the first to describe the cutaneous muscle of the neck - the platesma. He described the hamstring muscles and the Achilles tendon, which is derived from the gastrocnemius muscle. But Galen did not define many muscles in terms. Thus, he simply called the bulbocavernous muscle the muscle of the bladder neck. In his description of muscle anatomy, Galen noted some muscles that do not exist in humans. At the same time, he incorrectly described the attachment points and function of some existing muscles in humans. Studying the muscles, Galen described the worm-shaped, interosseous muscles, but did not know about the existence in humans of the muscle opposite the thumb - characteristic of humans - and described the hand of a monkey, not a person.

In the famous portrait of Andrei Vesalius by the artist Van Calcar, attached to the first edition of his treatise “On the Structure of the Human Body,” Vesalius is depicted standing by a suspended corpse and dissecting a hand. On the table in front of him lies a manuscript of the Latin text of Galen, which describes the movements of the five fingers of the hand. This text seems to emphasize that the weak point in Galen's research is the human hand, since it is described incompletely and incorrectly, and Vesalius demonstrates this in his portrait, in the composition of which he himself probably participated.

Galvn experimentally showed that the limb is alternately bent by internal muscles and then extended by external muscles. Thus, describing the fifth muscle, the largest, in his opinion, of all the muscles of the body, the adductor of the thigh, consisting of large, medium and small muscles attached to the internal and rear parts femoral bone and descending down almost to the knee joint, he, analyzing its function, wrote: “The posterior fibers of this muscle, coming from the ischium, strengthen the leg, straining the joint. This action is produced no less strongly by the lower portion of the fibers coming from the pubic bone, which is also accompanied by a slight inward rotational movement. The fibers lying above them bring the thigh inward in the same way as the uppermost ones lead and at the same time slightly raise the thigh” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book XV, chapter VIII; Kovner, p. 885). Carefully studying the muscles, Galen noted: “Can you foresee the consequences of a wound without knowing the longitudinal, transverse or oblique direction of the muscle?” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body”). Thus, the observant researcher Galen linked the structure of an organ with the prognosis of its recovery from injuries.

The famous scientist of the era of Ancient Rome, Claudius Galen, possessed versatile knowledge. From a young age, he showed a deep interest in understanding man and the nature around him. Medicine and natural science of that time are associated with his brilliant works. They served as the basis for the further development of natural science and medical science.

The memory of Galen lives on for centuries, and this test of time speaks eloquently of the significance of his discoveries and works that enriched humanity.

Galen was born around 130 AD. in the city of Pergamum during the reign of Emperor Hadrian; He died around the year 200, also in the city of Pergamum. His long life, despite poor health in his youth, is due to his habit of abstinence. “Get up from the table slightly hungry and you will always be healthy,” he taught.

Pergamum is the former capital of the Attalid kingdom of Pergamum, one of the states founded by the successors of Alexander the Great in the northwestern part of Asia Minor. Pergamon was its cultural center. In 133 BC. e. The kingdom of Pergamon became a Roman province.

The rich library of Pergamon rivaled in its completeness the rich library of Alexandria and was one of its attractions. When the import of Egyptian papyrus was limited, parchment was invented in Pergamon, which received its name from the history of this city.

To this day, there is the famous Pergamon altar of Zeus with images of scenes of the gods fighting giants - a popular myth in Ancient Greece. The altar was built at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. This is a huge structure, more than 9 m high, up to 120 m long. Up to 50 figures of gods and the same number of giants have been preserved. This altar is kept in the special museum "Pergamon" in democratic Berlin. This is a most interesting monument. It is described by I. S. Turgenev (Works, vol. XI, 1956). From ancient Pergamon (the city of Bergam in Turkey), only ruins have survived to this day.

Galen's father Nikon was known as a multi-talented person: an architect, mathematician, and philosopher. He strove to give his son the broadest education possible. Galen's teachers were prominent Pergamon scientists: the anatomist Satyricus, the pathologist Stratonicus, the empiricist philosopher Eschrion and many other scientists.

Galen diligently studied the works of Aristotle, Theophrastus and other philosophers. After his father's death, Galen undertook a long journey. At the age of 21, he came to Smyrna and there he studied anatomy with the anatomist Pelops, and studied philosophy under the guidance of Albinus. He then lived in Corinth, where he studied natural history and medicine with Numesian. He also visited Asia Minor and the famous Alexandria, where he diligently studied anatomy with the famous Heraklion.

The theoretical foundations of Galen's medical and biological views were largely based on the teachings of the school of Hippocrates (460-356), Aristotle (384-323), Alcmaeon and scientists of the late period of the Alexandrian school

The Alexandrian era is an important milestone in cultural life ancient world- lasted from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC. The city of Alexandria, built by the talented architect Dinocrates of Rhodes by decision of Alexander the Great at the mouth of one of the branches of the Nile, was for three centuries the capital of Egypt during the Hellenistic era. 50 years after the founding of the city, there were more than 300,000 inhabitants - it was one of the most populated cities of the ancient world, and by the beginning of the Christian era, about 1 million people lived in it. Its area occupied up to 100 km2. Alexandria was famous for its outstanding scientists. Theocritus, Demetrius of Phalerum, the founder of the Museum and library in Alexandria, lived and worked there. Muzeion is a kind of scientific brotherhood with a cult of muses, where the joint work of scientists was practiced. This example of combining the scientific creativity of scientists was taken from Aristotle and Theophrastus. Scientists and their pets clustered around the library and scientific collections. The museum had halls for lectures, for meals and for anatomical sections. At the Museum there were rooms for living.

The Museum is an ancient university, whose inhabitants and students were scientists, poets and philosophers. The number of students at the Museum reached several hundred people. The Museum was led by the chief priest of the muses. Among the librarians was the head of the new poetic school, Callimachus

In 47 BC. e. At the time of the capture of Alexandria by Julius Caesar, the library had 700,000 scrolls. According to some reports, part of this storage of manuscripts was then damaged by fire. The Roman general Antony, wanting to bring a gift to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, transferred 200,000 scrolls from the library of Pergamon to the Library of Alexandria.

Under Emperor Aurelian in 273 AD. e. During the war between Aurelian and the queen of Palmyra, Zinovia, who founded a great eastern power, the Museum burned down along with the library.

Among the scientists of the Alexandrian era, it should be noted in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Euclid - a mathematician and geometer, Hyparchus - the founder of trigonometry, Heron - the inventor of the steam engine and the famous Archimedes, who also often lived in the Museum of Alexandria. The museum was visited by many poets, astronomers and geographers, but physicians and among them anatomists are of particular interest to us. In Ancient Greece, there was a strict ban on autopsies of the dead. In Alexandria, where the old traditions of Egypt in connection with the embalming of the dead were still alive and the dissection of the human body was quite acceptable, scientists were given the opportunity to widely use the section to study the structure and functions of the human body. Thus, Herophilus, born in 300 BC. e. in Bithynpp, a student of Praxagoras of Cos and Chrysippus, taught anatomy at the Museum and was engaged in dissecting human corpses for display and research. The anatomist Straton of Lampsacus, a friend of Herophilus, was a good experimenter. Herophilus, according to Tertulian, publicly dissected more than 600 corpses. Gerofpl managed to correctly describe the structure of many organs of the human body. He distinguished veins from arteries and noted the presence of blood in both. Herophilus gave the name to the pulmonary veins, studied and described the anatomy of the liver, pancreas and genitals. Gerofpl studied the blood vessels and heart with particular care. The impulse of the pulse wave, according to Herophilus, is communicated to the arteries from the side of the heart. Studying the pulse, he established four phases: systole, diastole and two intermediate intervals. Herophilus measured the pulse rate using a water clock. He studied the eye, optic nerve and retina, brain, its connection with the spinal cord. He established a distinction between tendons and nerves that conduct sensation, although in Greek both tendons and nerves had the same name - “nerves.” Herophilus separated sensory nerves from motor ones. Herophilus Alexandrius - #who should be considered the founder of scientific anatomy.

Herophilus' contemporary Erasistratus, according to Pliny, is a relative of Aristotle, belonging to the Cnidus school, who worked for many years at the Alexandria Museum and, together with Herophilus, studied the vascular apparatus. He examined the lacteal vessels of the mesentery in living goats, the brain, its nerve centers and convolutions. He died around 240 BC. Erasistratus' research was devoted to the study of organ function. Erasistratus is considered the founder of scientific physiology, and we owe him the discovery of a method for the experimental study of the cortex and convolutions of the brain. [^Anatomy in its broadest sense acquired the character of an independent science thanks to the works of scientists of the Alexandrian school. Galen studied the works of the scientists of the School of Alexandria, and they were the basis of his medical knowledge and views. Having studied with great care the works of his predecessors, especially his contemporaries, quoting their works and referring to them, Galen preserved their ideas and achievements in science for subsequent generations, since the works of many of them were irretrievably lost, as in the burning of the vast Library of Alexandria and its the richest archives, as well as during the destruction of other book depositories during the turbulent era of the collapse of the ancient world and the invasion of diverse eastern conquerors.

Galen's travel to Alexandria unusually expanded the range of his knowledge and interests. He eagerly observed and studied all the sciences that interested him. Galen knew all Greek dialects, as well as Latin, Ethiopic and Persian. Galen spent more than 6 years traveling and, when he returned to Pergamum, he became a doctor at a gladiator school, where he practiced surgery for 4 years. In 164, the 34-year-old scientist moved to Rome and soon became popular there as an educated lecturer and an experienced physician; he was known to the emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, became close with the Peripatetic Eudemus, a famous philosopher in Rome, whom he cured and who glorified him as a most skillful physician.

Noisy life in Rome and hostility Some dogmatic doctors towards Galen forced him to leave Rome and take a new trip to Italy. He then visited Pergamon and Smyrna, where he visited his mentor Pelops. At the invitation of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, he returned to Rome again through Macedonia.

At his lectures, Galen demonstrated dissections of various animals. At the same time, he experienced a severe shock - the loss of his manuscripts, which were burned during a fire in the Temple of Peace, where the entire Palatine Library stored there also perished. In Rome, Galen wrote many works, including his main anatomical and physiological work “De usu partium corporis humani” - “On the purpose of the parts of the human body.” He is the author of more than 125 works. Galen, a universal scientist, wrote not only medical treatises, but also philosophical, mathematical and legal works. About 80 medical works belonging to him have reached us. They relate to anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, therapy, hygiene, dietetics, obstetrics and embryology. He wrote his works in Greek, and the language of his research works is interesting for a linguist. Galen carefully studied anatomy and in his studies sought to rely on facts obtained through anatomy. He wrote: “It is necessary to know exactly the functions and, above all, the structure of each part, by examining the facts revealed by anatomy and by personal observation; after all, now the books of those who call themselves anatomists are replete with thousands of errors” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book II, chapter VII).

Galen attached great importance to the study of the anatomy and physiology of animals based on his own experience. These works are especially important in his extensive scientific heritage.

Galen considered nature to be the main source of knowledge, the infallible teacher of truth. All his work is a hymn to nature.

Galen's in-depth research into the study of the animal and human body was a huge shift in the development of medical science.

If Galen did not manage to fully carry out the planned work, then his great merit is that he gave a detailed, systematic description of all the anatomical structures he studied.

One of Galen's main works, De anatomia (On Anatomy), consists of 16 books; Nine of them have reached us. These books were written in Greek, which at that time was the generally accepted language in science. In this study, Galen gives a consistent and complete description of the structure of the body.

Along with a large number of morphological observations, studies and discoveries, Galen also took one of the first places in the application of the experimental method to study anatomy. The anatomical views are presented in some detail; all departments are developed, but not equally fully. Osteology, which he studied back in Alexandril, has been studied in more detail. Describing the bones, Galen noted that in a living organism they are covered with a membrane - the periosteum. He distinguished between long bones in the skeleton, having a canal with bone marrow, and flat bones, lacking a canal. In bones, he described apophyses, diaphyses and epiphyses. True, Galen did not understand the term “diaphysis” in the same way as we currently understand it. The first two terms have reached our time in Galen’s interpretation. The Galenic term trochanter (trochanter) has been preserved and entered into anatomical terminology.

Galen considered teeth to be skeletal bones. He studied the origin of teeth and described this in his anatomical treatise.

Galen described the bones of the upper and lower extremities. His conscientious osteological descriptions still contain inevitable inaccuracies.

Galvn experimentally showed that the limb is alternately bent by internal muscles and then extended by external muscles. Thus, describing the fifth muscle, the largest, in his opinion, of all the muscles of the body, the adductor of the thigh, consisting of large, medium and small muscles attached to the inner and posterior parts of the femoral bone and descending down almost to the knee joint, he, analyzing it function, wrote: “The posterior fibers of this muscle, coming from the ischium, strengthen the leg, straining the joint. This action is produced no less strongly by the lower portion of the fibers coming from the pubic bone, which is also accompanied by a slight inward rotational movement. The fibers lying above them bring the thigh inward in the same way as the uppermost ones lead and at the same time slightly raise the thigh” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body,” book XV, chapter VIII; Kovner, p. 885). Carefully studying the muscles, Galen noted: “Can you foresee the consequences of a wound without knowing the longitudinal, transverse or oblique direction of the muscle?” (“On the purpose of the parts of the human body”). Thus, the observant researcher Galen linked the structure of an organ with the prognosis of its recovery from injuries.

Angiology in Galen is presented at length and in detail, according to the views of that era. He considered the heart to be a “muscle-like” organ, and not a muscle, because he did not find in it the presence of nerve branches characteristic of skeletal muscles. He mistakenly determined the location of the heart in the center chest.

Galen correctly described the coronary vessels of the heart and the ductus arteriosus.

Galen considered the septum of the heart to be permeable to blood, which could leak through it from the left heart to the right.

This view remained unshakable until the era of Vesalius, who, like his predecessors, could not detect these holes in the partition between the muscle crypts, but did not reject their existence. Only the description of the pulmonary circulation by Michael Servetus in the 16th century and the complete, exhaustive, accurate description of the movement of blood and heart made by William Harvey in the 17th century finally eliminated this never-discovered permeability of the blind septum of the heart. So persistent were the hypotheses, unconfirmed by life and experience, expressed by the indisputable authorities of science in their long circulation.

The heart, according to Galen, is the organ that gives rise to all arteries. body, just as the liver gives rise to all the veins. The system of arteries, according to Galen, carries air throughout the body, which the “roots of the arteries” receive from the lungs through the arterial vein, currently called the pulmonary artery. He wrote that through it the air flows into the left atrium, then passes into the left ventricle and, finally, into the aorta. According to Galen, “When the lung expands, the blood flows and fills all the veins of the lung; when it contracts, there is a kind of outflow of blood, which makes possible the constant movement of blood in the veins back and forth.” This complex and confusing idea only received correct resolution in the 17th century in the brilliant works of Harvey on blood circulation. Galen carefully studied and described the walls of the arteries as structures that were thicker in comparison with the walls of the veins, which, in his opinion, were equipped with a single lining of their own.

Galen, in his work “De facultatibus naturalibus,” experimentally proved the error of Erasistratus, who argued that arteries carry air, and blood penetrates into them after cutting their wall. Galen tied up a long section of the artery on both sides and, cutting it, showed that it was not air coming from it, but blood.

Galen described the veins, arguing that they received nutrients from the intestines and then supplied them to the liver. Veins penetrate the liver through the gate - “porta”, presented in the liver in the form of a transverse slit. Galen believed that there was a connection, in modern terminology, “anastomoses,” between the system of veins and arteries. He described the veins of the brain, which have retained his name in modern anatomy.

The section of splanchnology is most poorly described by Galen. The intestinal tube, although he describes it as being built from several layers, is still inaccurate, as if he describes something intermediate in development between the long intestines of herbivores and the shorter intestines of carnivores.

Galen experimentally proved that when the digestion in the stomach of an animal is finished, the lower opening of the stomach opens and food easily descends there (into the intestines), even accompanied by a large number of pebbles, nucleoli or other objects that are unable to turn into chyle. We can see this in an animal by calculating the moment the food passes down..." During digestion, the exit from the stomach is securely closed, and "... the stomach tightly embraces the food, just as the uterus embraces the fetus, because there is no way to find an empty place in the uterus , not in the stomach..."

“When the digestion came to an end, the pylorus opened and the stomach, like the intestines, revealed peristaltic movements.”

According to Galen, food gruel moves from the stomach and intestines by expelling force, which he correctly called peristaltic movement; the term "peristaltike kinesis" belongs to Galen.

Galen carefully studied the process of digestion and said that it depends on the strength of the stomach. The stomach attracts, holds and changes nutrients. -"

Galen considered the liver to be a hematopoietic organ and described it as having four lobes, which is typical for the structure of animal livers. The human gall bladder, according to Galen, has two ducts: the cystic and the bile ducts, and both of them, in his opinion, flow into the duodenum.

Galen considers bile to be a product of blood purification; yellow bile is a caustic liquid that, if it enters the stomach in excess, can destroy its walls and is therefore erupted by vomiting, and when present in normal quantities, it ensures the removal of mucus from the digestive tract.

Galen considered the spleen an auxiliary organ involved in the processing of unclean blood. Unusable excess for the body in the form of black bile is secreted with the participation of the spleen and enters the digestive tract, helping with its astringent properties to reduce it and digestion.

Galen described the omentum, noting its protective function. He recalled the gladiator he operated on, from whom the omentum that had fallen out of the wound was removed. This patient of Galen subsequently always felt the cold sharply and warmed his stomach with woolen clothing. Galen described the omentum as a supporting organ for blood vessels. Galen considered the act of breathing to be voluntary. He argued that when singing and protected from acrid smoke or when immersed in water, a person could hold his breath without harm. When you take a deep breath, the lungs expand and fill the entire chest cavity. Galen studied the structure of the breathing tube in some detail. He described the respiratory apparatus, which included the larynx, rigid artery (trachea), bronchi, lungs and their vascular apparatus, the heart, its left ventricle and vascular system, pulmonary arteries and veins.

Galen noted the presence of a moisturizing apparatus of the larynx in the form of fatty and viscous mucus, which protects the thin structures of the vocal apparatus from rupture and drying out. He compared the structure of the larynx with the structure of a flute. Galen's study of the structure and function of the larynx deserves great attention. The relationship between respiratory movements and pulse rate, which Galen noted in his clinical and physiological observations, is interesting. His treatise “On the Types of Pulse” is of great interest, which testifies to the author’s sophisticated research ability and rare gift of subtle observation. Galen wrote: “I made the science of the pulse the work of my whole life, but who after me would want to devote himself to this science in our miserable age, when no one recognizes any other god than wealth? But all the same, if there were at least one thousand people who studied and understood my works, I would be sufficiently rewarded for my efforts” (Kovner. Ist. dr. med., vol. III, p. 872). The movement of the heart - the alternation of systole and diastole - Galen carefully observed in living animals.

Galen knew the difference between arterial and venous blood. He believed that all the blood was spent on feeding parts of the body without returning it to the heart, all the time being renewed in the body from the dietary juice of the liver. According to Galen, this blood went from the liver to the right ventricle, here it was saturated with pneum and in this form entered the arteries to supply blood to the “noble organs.” Galen believed that the pulsating force of the arteries was the main mover of blood through the vessels. He paid attention to the activity of the thoraco-abdominal barrier and described the function of the intercostal and cervical muscles involved in the act of breathing. Studying the act of breathing, Galen experimented a lot and found that a section of the spinal cord made above the place of formation of the phrenic nerve causes paralysis of the thoraco-abdominal barrier, thereby proving the participation of the spinal cord in the function of the diaphragm.

The structure of the lung, according to Galen’s descriptions, consists of branches of the windpipe, pulmonary arteries, veins and air parenchyma, first described by Erasstratus.

Galen carried out experiments on experimental animals with the removal of part of the chest wall with intercostal muscles to prove that the lungs were not fused to the chest wall. He also studied the genitourinary apparatus: the purpose of the kidneys, according to Galen, is to remove excess water from the blood and mainly from the vena cava system. Small tubules in the kidney filter the watery fluid and excrete it from the body as urine.

Galen proved by experience that not only in a living animal, but also in a dead one, urine encounters an obstacle to returning from the bladder to the ureters. Thus, the reverse flow of urine is impossible, since it is prevented by the fold of the valve covered with the mucous membrane. This is a convincing and correct experiment of Galen,

While studying the comparative morphology of the genitals, Galen expressed an interesting idea about the parallelism in the structure of male and female organs. In his opinion, the ovaries in women correspond to the testicles in men; uterus - scrotum; private lips - foreskin. Galen rejected the bicornuate structure of a woman’s uterus, but considered the paired fallopian tubes to be its beginning. In his treatise “On Semen,” he referred to his experience - the operation of removing the ovaries of animals, which is far from safe. He wrote: “We hardly have the right to follow the advice of those who would like to use it on humans to remove some ovarian tumors.” One must think that already in the 2nd century AD. e. the operation of oophorectomy was practiced in some places, and Galen warned his contemporaries in an era of complete absence of antisepsis and asepsis against such an intervention, pointing out to them the great danger and difficulties of such an operation.

Galen viewed the female reproductive tube as a delay in the development of the male reproductive tube. In his opinion, the “cold nature” inherent in female body, according to the views of that time, and causes this inferior development. Galen's view deserves great interest, although it does not correspond to modern views on the homology of genital development. This view is all the more surprising because Galen did not note the now known fact that the difference between the sexes begins to appear only from the fifth month of intrauterine life of the human embryo. Without noting anywhere these signs of evolution, he still argues for parallelism of development.

Galen's merits are especially great in his study of the nervous system. Studying the nervous system, he successfully continued to develop the basic concepts of Alcmaeon and Hippocrates, arguing that the center of thinking and feeling is the brain. Galen considered the cerebellum and spinal cord to emerge from the brain as a kind of “root”. Galen considered the brain to be the source of the body’s motor ability, and not at all a gland that cools the warmth of the heart with mucus, as Aristotle believed. Wanting to prove this experimentally, Galen pricked and crushed the heart with forceps, but this did not cause disorders of the sensitive sphere OR consciousness. When he did such irritations in the brain, they were always accompanied by a lottery of sensitivity and consciousness. With this experiment, Galen refuted Aristotle's concept that the heart is the center of sensitivity of the body.

Galen, examining the substance of the brain, noted that the brain is softer in the anterior section and denser in the posterior section, in the cerebellum and in the spinal cord, especially at its end.

Galen carefully described all parts of the brain: the cerebral commissure, the lateral or anterior ventricles, the middle ventricle, the fourth ventricle, the fornix, which serves to maintain the weight of the parts of the brain located above it and to protect the ventricles from pressure on them. Galen noted the presence of the lyre of David between the posterior legs of the brain, described the “writing pen”, the cerebellar peduncles to the quadrigeminal, the conical appendage of the brain - the pineal gland, the cerebellum, the cerebellar vermis and the quadrigeminal. He mentioned the funnel on which the sputum gland, an appendage of the brain, is suspended.

Describing the spinal cord, Galen noted: “Know that the spinal cord gives rise to all dense nerves, and its lower end is the densest, that the brain is the source of all soft nerves, and the center of its anterior part is intended for the softest; finally, the junction of the brain and spinal cord is the beginning of the substance of the middle nerves.” Galen noted the connection between the senses and the brain. He made a number of interesting experiments with transection of the spinal cord at various levels of its extension and tried to establish its role and significance in the motor acts of the body and in sensory perceptions. By dissecting the spinal cord transversely, Galen observed loss of sensation and movement disorders in the areas located below the section. Cutting the spinal cord along its entire length, he noted no sensory or motor disorders. By cutting the spinal cord between the atlas and the occiput or between the atlas and the epistropheus, he observed the death of the animal immediately after the cut.

Galen formulated his remarkable conclusion, made on the basis of an experiment on the “living” nervous system of an animal, as follows: “If you cut any nerve or spinal cord, then the parts of the organ that lie above the section and remain connected to the brain still retain the ability to emanating from this beginning, while the entire part lying below the cut is no longer able to impart to this organ either movement or sensitivity.” Galen performed partial resection of the brain substance, even resected the hemispheres of the brain, while the animal did not lose the ability to move or lose sensitivity. He observed paralysis only when he opened the ventricles of the brain; This was especially pronounced when the fourth ventricle of the brain was damaged, accompanied by complete paralysis of the animal.

Galen gave a description of the nerve centers in the brain; he cited the following episode that amazed him as a doctor and experimenter: “In the city of Smyrna in Ionia, we witnessed such an incredible event. We saw young man, wounded in one of the anterior ventricles of the brain and after this wound surviving, as it seemed, by the will of God; there is no doubt that he would not have remained alive for a single minute if both ventricles had been injured at once.”

Obviously, Galen trusted the laws of nature more than the “will of God.” Galley always readily referred to the authority of Hippocrates and emphasized that he “everywhere glorifies the justice of nature and its foresight towards living beings. If the duty of justice is to carefully investigate everything and give everyone what they deserve, then how can nature not surpass everyone in its justice? These are the views of Galen, that tireless researcher of nature, the brilliant pioneer of experimental morphology of animals and humans. He is interested in the structure and function of all parts of the central and peripheral nervous system.

According to Galen, the spinal cord, starting at the level of the “writing pen,” is a derivative of the brain. Without thoroughly reproaching Praxagoras and Philotimus for ignorance, who rightly considered the brain to be a continuation of the spinal cord, Galen correctly described the membranes of the brain, excluding the arachnoid, which he did not know. The sensation of pain, according to Galen, originates in nerves.

Galen described seven pairs of cranial nerves. He considered the first pair to be the softest optic nerves (pp. op-tisi), which pass into the retina, which is absolutely correct. The visual thalamus of the brain, according to Galen's observation, is the beginning of the optic nerves. He does not note the decussation of the chiasma, but describes the chiasma as a contact of nerves. The second pair are the oculomotor nerves (nn. oculomotorii). Galen believed that they supplied all the muscles of the eye, of which he numbered seven in each eye socket. The third pair is the trigeminal nerves (nn. trigemini); like his predecessor the anatomist Marin, Gapin believed that they consisted of two branches, and they both attributed the third branch to the orbital branch (nil. ophthalmici). Galen called the fourth pair the maxillary and mandibular nerves (branches of the trigeminal nerve). The fifth pair, like Marin, was considered by Galen to be the auditory and facial nerves (n. acusticus and n. facialis), taking them as a single nerve, although Halep described in detail their container - the bony canal of the petrous part and the stylomastoid foramen of the temporal bone. Galen called the sixth pair the vagus nerves. He described in detail the entire course of the vagus nerves (nn. vagi), their recurrent branches, thoracic and gastric branches. Galen described the participation of the recurrent branch of the vagus nerve in voice production; and proved this experimentally. Galen considered the seventh pair to be the hypoglossal nerves (nn. hypoglossi) and the spinal nerves, of which he counted 58. He described them in detail and correctly, including the phrenic nerves associated with the eight cervical nerves.

Looking at Galen's description of the spinal nerves, one can notice his attempt to separately describe the autonomic sympathetic nervous system. He argued that cutting the anterior roots of the spinal cord disrupts movement, and the posterior roots - sensitivity. These experiments of Galen were an attempt at a correct approach to a materialistic understanding of the functions of the nervous system.

The substance of the brain, according to Galen, is very close to the substance of the nerves, but he considered the nerves to be denser formations. Galen described the nerves of the internal organs quite correctly and in detail, including them in the latter department. As for the anatomical and physiological differentiation of the peripheral nervous system, he outlined his observations as follows: “Imagine two nerves - the densest and softest of all the nerves of the body, then imagine a third, occupying an intermediate position between them (in terms of density). All nerves located between the average (by density) nerve and the densest one can be considered dense, and all the rest, up to the softest, can be considered soft. It should be thought that the dense nerves were created as the most suitable for movement and the least suitable for the perception of sensations, and that, on the contrary, the soft nerves are characterized by the ability to accurately perceive sensations and the incapacity of strong movements. All completely soft nerves are absolutely unsuitable for movement; less soft ones, approaching the middle ones, are at the same time motor nerves, but in their action they are much weaker than dense nerves. Remember well that the spinal cord is the beginning of all dense nerves and that its lower the end gives rise to extremely dense nerves, that the brain is the beginning of all soft nerves, that the center of the anterior part is intended for the softest, that the confluence of the brain and spinal cord is the beginning of the substance of the middle nerves." These are Galen's observations and his attempts to find an anatomical and physiological explanation functions of the nervous system. Galen described many interesting facts and made many interesting observations. So, he wrote, addressing the reader: “Think also that the discovery that I hold in my hands, I was the first to make.

None of these nerves were known to any anatomist." We are talking here about the nerves of the larynx. He tried to verify all his observations at autopsy and... in the experiment. Galen wrote about his research there: “This device was discovered through anatomical research.”

Galen's numerous and interesting works, supported by experience, make him the founder of experimental physiology. His deep penetration into natural science and recognition of the creative power of nature speak of Galen’s materialistic approach to the study of the human body.

In his treatise “On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body,” Galen paid great attention to the structure and function of the sense organs. He wrote: “Although all sense organs have a common source of sensation in the brain and in this respect they are very similar, nevertheless there are specific differences between them in relation to the sensory abilities themselves and to the bodies through which these sensations reach the organ . Indeed, of these faculties, one judges odors, another judges tastes, one judges sounds, and another judges the color of bodies. If the brain were not the point from which the change occurring in each of the sense organs proceeds and returns, the animal would remain deprived of sensations. Look at the people struck down; although all their sense organs are intact, these organs, however, remain with them without any use for assessing perceived things.” Galen, describing the organ of hearing, the spiral winding passages of the labyrinth, the eardrum, gave an idea of its complex structures. He described the nerve of the tongue and noted its properties and specific role in determining taste. About the organ of smell, Galen wrote: “Of all the senses, only the organ of smell is placed by nature inside the skull.”

Galen believed that this organ, in addition to the function of smell, also serves to cleanse the brain of excess moisture. This old and traditional view of the purpose of the ethmoid bone and the drainage of mucus from the brain into the nasal cavity was recognized by scientists until the Renaissance.

Of all the senses, Galen dedicated a special book to the organ of vision - the eye. Galen attached particular importance to the lens of the eye. He believed that the lens is nourished by vitreous humor, which leaks from the surrounding membrane called the retina. Its purpose, in addition to nourishing the vitreous humor, is to transmit to the brain the ideas received by the lens. Galen considered the choroid of the eye to be a continuation of the pia mater. The sclera, according to Galen, is a continuation of the dura mater, and its purpose is to protect the choroid, which the sclera surrounds. Galen considered the sixth shell of the eye to be the aponeurosis, which is a continuation of the tendons of the muscles that move the eye. The last, located outside the eyeball, is the periosteal membrane, connecting the eye to the bone and covering the muscles of the eyeball. These seven shell circles, according to Galen, are part of the structure of the iris - the iris. He rightly considered the cornea to be a continuation of the sclera. Galen also described the lacrimal apparatus of the eye.

Galen's theory of vision is based on mathematical principles. The eyeball has the shape of a circle, the visible object is perceived in a straight line - the visual ray. In order for the visible object not to double, the axes of the visual cones must lie in the same plane. Galen had priority in constructing a geometric substantiation of the theory of vision. But it is not just the theoretical results of experiments and observations that make these studies interesting.

Galen's work “On the Purpose of Parts of the Human Body” theoretically substantiates his views, but is also a manual for medical practitioners of that time, teaching how to diagnose diseases and determine their prognosis, considering the body as a whole. Galen himself practiced medicine and was an excellent surgeon and an experienced physician. In this treatise, he gave practical advice based on his own experience, which makes it easier for the doctor to both make a diagnosis and prognosis for complicated dislocations, when it becomes necessary to cut an organ or remove part of it due to a putrefactive lesion. When wounded by an arrow or dart, knowing the location and purpose of parts of the human body, the doctor will be able to reasonably make an incision or know exactly what needs to be spared.

Galen wrote: “I often had to lead the hand of surgeons who were not very sophisticated in anatomy, and thereby save them from public shame” (De administratio-nibus anatomicis, I, III, pp. 1-9).

Galen argued that if the act of walking is impossible due to damage to a nerve or muscle, then it is also impossible when the bones that give us the ability to stand on our feet are broken or dislocated.

The information presented in the treatise is also important for the purposes of surgical therapy and diagnosis of those diseases that occur in organs hidden in the cavities of the human body.

Health in the view and interpretation of Galen is a state of the body when all functions of the body are performed painlessly and unhindered, that is, without any delays. Galen wrote: “Health is the balance and harmony of the four elements g, - moisture, homogeneous parts, organs, finally, governing the entire organism of the SNL.” According to Galen, nature itself protects and protects the health of the body; the role of a doctor is reduced only to helping nature. In his research, Galen always had in mind the structure of the human body, specifically the human body. Thus, he wrote: “If death does not interrupt my intentions, I will someday outline the structure of animals, dissecting every smallest organ, as I did in humans.” Everything that this tireless worker and talented experimenter reported was based on his close study of the animal and human body. Galen taught that the brain, heart and liver are a “vital triangle”; he argued that there is no disembodied, matterless, undying soul.

Galen's works are a rise of progressive thought; in-depth studies of the animal and human body. They were a huge stimulus for the development of biological and medical science for his time and subsequent centuries.

For 14 centuries, Galen's works were the only source of anatomical knowledge. The greatness of his achievements made him an irrefutable and uncriticizable authority. All attempts to correct Galen's texts were considered deliberately flawed. No one dared to correct his involuntary mistakes, and they became established as infallible truths.

Andrei Vesalius, who deeply appreciated and respected Galen, studied and participated in the republication of his works, it was out of a sense of recognition for the great scientist, for his research methods that demonstrated the truth, that he decided to refute some of Galen’s data and correct his mistakes. But this struggle between Vesalius and numerous conservative adherents of Galen, and not with his ideas and progressive methods of research, cost Vesalius his life.

There is an interesting epigram of the famous physician and polyhistor John Sambuca (1531-1584) - this is the inscription under the image of Andrei Vesalius, the founder of human anatomy, in the famous iconographic work of I. Sambuca “Several images of ancient and modern doctors” (Antwerp, 1574). This epigram is remarkable in that it marks the dissection of mainly animal corpses by ancient doctors; here she is:

“Who will be a good doctor and surgeon without you?

excellent,

What if he didn’t penetrate into the structure and essence of the organs? For how many centuries this industry has been lurking in the darkness: dogs and piglets, it was not people who were dissected by doctors in ancient times.” (Translation by Yu. F. Shultz)

Evidence of Galen's high authority is the deep interest of doctors in his works and the desire to use them and widely disseminate them. To further popularize Galen's works, some doctors compiled their “Abridgements,” which was the custom of that time. Popular presentation of complex medical problems facilitated their study and practical application. In addition to the “Abbreviations” of the works of the luminaries of ancient medicine, there was a custom to write about them in poetic form, in the form of epigrams. We present two epigrams about the works of Galen, written by unknown doctors, probably in late antiquity, and one epigram from the physician Magnus:

1. (Palat, Antol., appendix III, 231) Having brought together with great difficulty everything that the book incomprehensibly sets out for us, I presented it clearly to those who want to know and without difficulty delivered a wondrous gift for them. With my own hand, diligently, I gave the contents of this book, briefly outlining it, from where it generously flows - God is the helper - in an abundant stream of beauty that is visible to everyone, freeing us from the severity of illnesses and driving away the pitiful form of suffering. Those who wished to find a sage as soon as possible, Through the speeches of the strong Galen, - after all, he wrote beautifully, and his glory ascended immeasurably high - for those he appeared in splendor, Sparkling with the unspeakably purity of words; Brilliant, marvelous, glorious, but also modest, to the hearts that knew him - there is no higher bliss - He appeared like a luminary, emitting light

(Translation by Yu. F. Shultz)

The most prominent anatomist of the 19th century, Georges Cuvier, characterized Galen as follows: “Galen is much higher than Aristotle as an anatomist, physiologist and doctor. He is the first TRUE anatomist of antiquity.” And this characteristic is fair and objective.

Encyclopedist Galen, a great scientist, an unsurpassed expert in the Greek language, possessing all the treasures of knowledge of the Greek, Alexandrian and Roman medical schools, is one of the founders of independent research in biological science and a pioneer of the remarkable observations he made, both in the study of structure and in the study of functions organisms of animals and humans.

How did Galen’s views and ideas influence ancient Russian zealots of medical education? How and in what ways did the monumental scientific legacy of Galen help them? In the 15th century in Rus', the “Commentary of Galen to the Works of Hippocrates” was created by the works of Abbot Kirill of the Belozersky Monastery. Kirill undertook this work for the needs of the monastery hospital and entitled it “Galpnovo on Ipocrates.” Kirill, known in the world as Kuzma, was born in Moscow in 1337. He was tonsured a monk at the Simonov Monastery. There he subsequently became an archimandrite, but left the abbotship for the sake of the solitude he was looking for. For this purpose, Kirill settled in a cave and went to a monastery “for silence” on Beloozero to Lake Siverskoye. There he founded a monastery and was its abbot for 30 years. Cyril died in 1427 as a 90-year-old man. Cyril was a student of Sergius of Radonezh and took part in the political life of Muscovite Rus', as evidenced by his writings.

He wrote “Moral Epistles” to various Russian princes - to Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, to Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky and to Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky.

The “Rule of the Monastery” written by him is well known. The text of the Charter is printed in abbreviation in the four Menaions in the biography of Cyril. He wrote the “Messages” (in the fourth part of the History of the Russian Hierarchy when describing the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery). Kirill was the most educated man of his time. Under him, the monastery organized the copying of books and manuscripts by the monks of the monastery. Was founded and assembled by Kirill a big library consisting of handwritten books. This most valuable collection of manuscripts and books is kept in Leningrad in the State Public Library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin. Cyril was so popular and active that the monastery he founded bore his name.

The manuscript “Galinovo on Ipocrates” was found in the 19th century and published by N. S. Tikhonravov. Since the ancient text of this work of Galen is quite extensive, then, obviously, Tikhon-ravov, and perhaps Cyril himself, while working on compiling his work, subjected it to abridgement, taking from it what he considered necessary. Cyril's Manuscript contains anatomical and physiological information, notes the forms of diseases of the eyes and teeth, describes suffocation, provides information on dietetics and other useful advice.

The definition of medicine is interesting: “Medicine is cunning (art), measure for those who are healthy and healing for the sick.” In order to give an idea of the ancient original of Galen's commentary on the collection of Hippocrates, we present the contents of this collection: two books describing “human nature”, three books on “maintaining health”, four books on the diet, four books on the treatment of acute diseases, three books about body fluids, three books about epidemics, four books about joints, three books about bone fractures, three books about the prognosis of diseases, three books about the “doctor’s workshop,” i.e., about the manufacture of medicinal products.

This interesting and necessary creation of Galen’s medical practice was used by Kirill Belozersky for the monastic doctors of Rus'. If we do not take into account this handwritten work, completed in the pre-Petrine period of our history in the Old Russian language, we could say that not a single one of the works of Claudius Galen was translated into Russian. Meanwhile, doctors refer to the works of Galen very often, and our doctors are forced to obtain information about this classic of medicine either from various quotes, or having only Greek originals or foreign translations of some; works of Galen. On English language To this day, neither in England nor in America there is a translation of Galen’s main work “On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body.” Therefore, the commented edition of this main work of Galen in Russian fills a significant gap in the series of classics of medical science.

This series of medical works, already published in the Soviet Union, is represented by the works of Hippocrates, Cornelius Celsus (“On Medicine”), Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (“Canon of Medical Science”), Arnold from; Villanova (“Salerno Code of Health”), anatomical and physical works of Leonardo da Vinci, a treatise by the anatomy reformer Andrei Vesalius. All of them refer to the works of Galen, quote, comment, criticize him, which is why acquaintance with Galen’s main work “On the Purpose of the Parts of the Human Body,” an outstanding monument of Roman medical science, is of great scientific interest for both scientific researchers and physicians.

Galen's works were translated many times in the East. There are translations of his works into Arabic and Syriac.

Of the translations of Galen's works into Latin, it should be noted that the handwritten translation of part of Galen's works is of great interest: Nico-laus de Regio around 1330 in the excellent parchment codex of the Dresden Library, decorated with 116 artistically executed drawings in the form capital letters. They echo the text and draw scenes of everyday life and costumes of that time.

On Latin Galen's works in two volumes first appeared in the Viennese edition of 1490. In Greek in five volumes, Galen's works were published only in 1525. The Venetian edition of 1541, appreciated by Giunti, is the first complete edition of Galen, reprinted many times. Then we should mention the Basel editions of 1534 and 1542, produced by the famous printer Hieroninus Froben. The following translations are known.

Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, full member

International Academy of History of Medicine

V. N. TERNOVSKY