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GALEN (or GALENUS), CLAUDIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 399 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GALEN (or GALENUS), See also:CLAUDIUS , called Gallien by See also:Chaucer and other writers of the See also:middle ages, the most celebrated of See also:ancient medical writers, was See also:born at Pergamus, in See also:Mysia, about A.D. 130. His See also:father Nicon, from whom he received his See also:early See also:education, is described as remarkable both for excellence of natural disposition and for See also:mental culture; his See also:mother, on the other See also:hand; appears to have been a second See also:Xanthippe. In 146 Galen began the study of See also:medicine, and in about his twentieth See also:year he See also:left Pergamus for See also:Smyrna, in See also:order to See also:place himself under the instruction of the anatomist and physician See also:Pelops, and of the peripatetic philosopher See also:Albinus. He subsequently visited other cities, and in 158 returned from See also:Alexandria to Pergamus. A few years later he went for the first See also:time to See also:Rome. There he healed Eudemus, a celebrated peripatetic philosopher, and other persons of distinction; and ere See also:long, by his learning and unparalleled success as a physician, earned for himself the titles of "Paradoxologus," the wonder-See also:speaker, and "Paradoxopoeus," the wonder-worker, thereby incurring the See also:jealousy and envy of his See also:fellow-practitioners. Leaving Rome in x68, he repaired to his native See also:city, whence he was soon sent for to See also:Aquileia, in See also:Venetia, by the emperors See also:Lucius Verus and See also:Marcus Aurelius. In 170 he returned to Rome with the latter, who, on departing thence to conduct the See also:war on the See also:Danube, having with difficulty been persuaded to dispense with his See also:personal attendance, appointed him medical See also:guardian of his son See also:Commodus. In Rome Galen remained for some years, greatly extending his reputation as a physician, and See also:writing some of his most important See also:treatises. It would appear that he eventually betook himself to Pergamus, after spending some time at the See also:island of See also:Lemnos, where he learned the method of preparing a certain popular medicine, the " terra lemnia " or " sigillata." Whether he ever revisited Rome is uncertain, as also are the time and place of his See also:death. According to Suidas, he died at the See also:age of seventy, or in the year 200, in the reign of Septimius See also:Severus.

If, however, we are to See also:

trust the testimony of Abul-faraj, his decease took place in See also:Sicily, when he was in his eightieth year. Galen was one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of his age. He composed, it is said, nearly 500 treatises on various subjects, including See also:logic, See also:ethics and See also:grammar. Of the published See also:works attributed to him, 83 are recognized as genuine, 19 are of doubtful authenticity, 45 are confessedly See also:spurious, 19 are fragments, and 15 are notes on the writings of See also:Hippocrates. Galen, who in his youth was carefully trained in the Stoic See also:philosophy, was an unusually prolific writer on logic. Of the numerous commentaries and See also:original treatises, a See also:catalogue of which is given in his See also:work De propriis libris, one only has come down to us, the See also:treatise on Fallacies in dictione (Ilepl i&v Kara rip' Mw uodiiQµarwv). Many points of logical theory, however, are discussed in his medical and scientific writings. His name is perhaps best known in the See also:history of logic in connexion with the See also:fourth syllogistic figure, the first distinct statement of which was ascribed to him by See also:Averroes. There is no See also:evidence from Galen's own works that he did make this addition to the doctrines of See also:syllogism, and the remarkable passage quoted by Minoides See also:Minas from a See also:Greek commentator on the Analytics, referring the fourth figure to Galen, clearly shows that the addition did not, as generally supposed, See also:rest on a new principle, but was merely an amplification or alteration of the indirect moods of the first figure already noted by See also:Theophrastus and the earlier See also:Peripatetics. In 1844 Minas published a work, avowedly from a MS. with the superscription Galenus, entitled PaXrlvou Eioa w'yi &aXEK?nIn . Of this work, which contains no See also:direct intimation of a fourth figure, and which in See also:general exhibits an astonishing mixture of the Aristotelian and Stoic logic, Prantl speaks with the bitterest contempt. He shows demonstratively that it cannot be regarded as a writing of Galen's, and ascribes it to some one or other of the later Greek logicians.

A full See also:

summary of its contents will be found in the 1st vol. of the Geschichte der Logik (pp. 591-610), and a See also:notice of the logical theories of the true Galen in the same work, PP. 5.59-5n- There have been numerous issues of the whole or parts of Galen's works, among the editors or illustrators of which may be mentioned Jo. Bapt. Opizo, N. Leonicenus, L. See also:Fuchs, A. Lacuna, See also:Ant. Musa Brassavolus, Aug. Gadaldinus, See also:Conrad See also:Gesner, Sylvius, Cornarius, Joannes Montanus, Joannes See also:Caius, See also:Thomas See also:Linacre, See also:Theodore Goulston, Caspar Hoffman, Rene See also:Chartier, See also:Haller and See also:Kuhn. Of Latin See also:translations Choulant mentions one in the 15th and twenty-two in the following See also:century. The Greek See also:text was edited at See also:Venice, in 1525, 5 vols. fol.

; at See also:

Basel, in 1538, 5 vols. fol. ; at See also:Paris, with Latin version by Rene Chartier, in 1639, and in 1679, 13 vols. fol. ; and at See also:Leipzig, in1821-1833, by C. G. Kuhn, considered to be the best, 20 vols. 8vo. An See also:epitome in See also:English of the works of Hippocrates and Galen, by J. R. See also:Coxe, was published at See also:Philadelphia in 1846. A new edition of Galen's smaller works by J. See also:Marquardt, Iwan See also:Muller and G. Helmreich was published in three volumes at Leipzig in 1884-1909.

Further details as to the See also:

life and an See also:account of the anatomical and medical knowledge of Galen will be found in the See also:historical articles under the headings of See also:ANATOMY and MEDICINE. See also Rene Chartier's Life, in his edition of Galen's works; N. F. J. Eloy, Dictionnaire historique de la medecine, s.v. " Galien," torn. i. (1778); F. See also:Adams's " Commentary " in his Medical Works of See also:Paulus See also:Aegineta (See also:London and See also:Aberdeen, 1834) ; J. See also:Kidd, " A Cursory See also:Analysis of the Works of Galen, so far as they relate to Anatomy and See also:Physiology," Trans. Provincial Med. and Surg. Assoc. vi., 1837, pp. 299-336; C.

V. Daremberg, Exposition See also:

des connaissances de Galien sur l'anatomie, la physiologie et la pathologie du systeme nerveux (These pour le Doctorat en Medecine) (Paris, 1841) ; J. R. Gasquet, " The See also:Practical Medicine of Galen and his Tiine," The See also:British and See also:Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Rev., vol. xi., 1867, pp. 472-4488; and Ilberg, " See also:Die Schriften des Claudius Galenos," Rheinisches Museum See also:fur Philologie, 1889, 1892 and 1896.

End of Article: GALEN (or GALENUS), CLAUDIUS

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