Galen

Question 1

When was Galen around?

Answer 1

2nd century AD

Question 2

Was he Roman or Greek?

Answer 2

Greek

Question 3

What was his most significant job

Answer 3

Served as Marcus Aurelius’ personal doctor

Question 4

What were the 3 main streams of thought in Medicine at the time

Answer 4

• Dogmatists: Believed medicine must be understood by logical thinking
• Empiricists: Believed medicine should be studied
• Methodists: All issues are problems with constriction or relaxation

Question 5

What were the 2 main stages of his career?

Answer 5

1/ Appointed high priest of the gladiators in Pergamum (Greek city)
- Gained great experience in medicine and nutrition

2/ Left for Rome, became a prominent physician
- Wrote prodigiously, most ancient greek written of any author

Question 6

Why did he study in Alexandria?

Answer 6

Alexandra was a hive of medical research

-> Alexandria was the only place one can study a skeleton

Question 7

What was the 4 humours theory?

Answer 7

Galen believed that a human was made of four components:

• Air = Blood
• Water = Phlegm
• Earth = Black bile
• Yellow bile = fire

Question 8

What were 2 other significant contributions?

Answer 8

1/ Pharmacology:

• Used drugs to identify their properties in a scientific way
  
  • > Works became the foundations of medieval pharmacology

2/ Mind and Body
- Believed the mind and body were inextricably linked