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Roman Medicine: (Santiago, Posadas, Mallari)
Roman Medicine: (Santiago, Posadas, Mallari)
Roman Medicine: (Santiago, Posadas, Mallari)
D. Dioscorides
quite as warm as that awarded to Asclepius.
While Galen could not do systematic human anatomies, this Like Erasistratus, Galen assumed that there must be
does not mean that he never studied human cadavers. His connections between the veins (which arose from the liver)
extensive anatomical experience made it possible for him to and the arteries (which arose from the heart) because
put fortuitous opportunities to good advantage. bleeding from any vessel could drain the whole system but
Galen ingeniously refuted the idea that, under normal
Celsus conditions, the arteries contain only air.
- suggested that a physician could learn a good deal about
the form and functions of the internal organs by exploiting According to Galen’s scheme, the arterial pulse was
the wounds and injuries of his patients as ‘‘windows’’ generated by the heart. During the diastole of the heart, the
into the body. dilation of the arteries drew in air through the pores in the
skin and blood from the veins. Thus, the arteries served the
function of nourishing the innate heat throughout the body.
IV. GALEN ON PHYSIOLOGY: BLOOD, BREATH, PNEUMA This concept could be demonstrated by tying a ligature
AND SPIRITS around a limb so that it was tight enough to cut off the
Never satisfied with purely anatomical description, Galen arterial pulse. Below the ligature, the limb would become
constantly struggled to find ways of proceeding from cold and pale, because the arteries were no longer able to
structure to function, from pure anatomy to experimental supply the innate heat.
physiology.
By extending medical research from anatomy to physiology, For Galen’s system to work, blood had to pass from the right
Galen established the foundations of a program that would ventricle to the left ventricle. Therefore, he assumed that
transform the Hippocratic art of medicine into the science of blood in the right side of the heart could follow various
medicine. paths. Some of the blood carried impurities, or ‘‘sooty
Given the magnitude of his self-imposed task, and the vapors’’, for discharge by the lungs via the artery-like
voluminous and prolix nature of his writings, the totality of vein (pulmonary artery). Blood could also pass from the
his work has been more honored than understood. right side to the left side of the heart by means of pores in
the septum. The pores themselves were not visible, but
Galen’s System of Physiology (Galenic Physiology) Galen assumed that the pits found in the septum were the
mouths of the pores.
encompassed concepts of blood formation,
respiration, the heartbeat, the arterial pulse,
digestion, nerve function, embryology, growth, Humoralism
nutrition, and assimilation. embodied in Galenism
rested on the Platonic doctrine of a threefold was capable of explaining the genesis and essence of all
division of the soul. This provided a means of dividing diseases and rationalizing all clinical findings.
vital functions into processes governed by vegetative, According to Galen, the humors were formed when
animal, and rational ‘‘souls’’ or ‘‘spirits.’’ nutriments were altered by the innate heat that was
Within the human body, pneuma (air), which was the produced by the slow combustion taking place in the
breath of the cosmos, was subject to modifications heart.
brought about by the innate faculties of the three - Foods of a warmer nature tend to produce bile,
principle organs: the liver, heart, and brain, which are while those of a colder nature produced an excess of
distributed by three types of vessels: veins, arteries, phlegm. An excess of bile caused ‘‘warm diseases’’
and nerves. and an excess of phlegm resulted in ‘‘cold diseases.’’
In essence, pneuma was modified by the liver so that it - Several Galenic texts dealt with food, the humors,
became the nutritive soul or natural spirits that and the relationship between food and the humors.
supported the vegetative functions of growth and
nutrition; this nutritive soul was distributed by the veins. After appropriate ‘‘digestion’’ in the lungs, inhaled air was
brought to the heart by the pulmonary vein. The modified air
was further acted on in the heart and transported to other
Ultimate antidote
formidable concoction containing some 64 ingredients,
including opium and viper’s flesh
Andromachus claimed that his theriac was a health tonic
as well as a universal antidote.