Tag: Galen
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“The pissing evil” before insulin
JMS PearceHull, England There are many excellent descriptions of the history of diabetes, and of the nineteenth- and particularly twentieth-century discoveries of the secretion of insulin by the beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans.1,2 (See Table) However, the earlier history of diabetes is less known. The Egyptian papyrus (c. 1550 BC) discovered by…
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Aristotle: Medical
Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, is remembered primarily as a philosopher, yet his contributions to medicine and biology are equally significant. In an age when philosophy, science, and medicine were not rigidly separated, Aristotle sought to understand the natural world through observation and classification. His efforts laid…
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Medical terminologies inspired by the animal world
Saty Satya-MurtiSanta Maria, California, United States In the transitional decades from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, restrictions against human cadaveric dissection gradually dissipated. This gave Italian and French anatomists an opportunity to break away from rigid dogmas and incorrect Galenic (Galen of Pergamon, 129–216 CE) pronouncements. Religious and moral taboos had long prohibited detailed human…
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Book review: Galen: An Anthology
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Galen was born in 129 AD in Pergamon, an important Greco-Roman city of the Hellenistic period in Asia Minor. Today the remnants and ruins of this ancient city are sited in Bergama, a city in northwest Turkey. Galen started learning his medical craft in Pergamon while simultaneously attending lectures in philosophy.…
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Early observations of the pulse
JMS PearceHull, England Over the centuries, various devices bearing names now unfamiliar (Clepsydra, water clock, pulsilogium, Sphygmologia, Pulse Watch) were used to measure the pulse.The examination of the pulse to assist in diagnosis and prognosis dates back to ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese physicians. Because they had little understanding of cardiovascular physiology, we might wonder…
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Medical teaching from ancient civilizations to the nineteenth century
Patrick FiddesAustralia The perception that medicine’s contemporary teaching practices were introduced by innovative Modern Era1 physicians does not recognize the original contributions of ancient forefathers. Medicine’s earliest teaching records exist in ancient Sanskrit. They provide “detailed information concerning the training of doctors”2 in Akkadian where “the master’s interpretation of texts were preserved as [an] oral…
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The pineal: Seat of the soul
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom The pineal for millennia had been a structure of mystery. In Ancient Egyptian culture, The Eye of Horus was a sign of prosperity and protection, often referred to as the third eye. In Ayurvedic physiology it corresponds to the sixth chakra—Ajna, located in the middle of the forehead, representing intelligence,…
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The appendicitis conundrum
Jayant RadhakrishnanNathaniel KooDarien, Illinois, United States Acute appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency in the world. One would expect consensus regarding its management, but that has not been the case from the time the appendix was first identified. Galen (129–216 CE) was not permitted to dissect human bodies, so he dissected monkeys. Since…
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Book review: Greco-Roman Medicine and What it Can Teach Us Today
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The Republic of Rome was founded in the sixth century BC. In the third century BC, the western Roman Empire began to spread outside the borders of Italy. Roman rule came to Britain in AD 43 with the invasion by Claudius and ended in AD 476. The eastern Roman Empire,…
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Book review: Medicine in the Middle Ages
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom In the history of Western Europe, the Middle Ages refers to the period between the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century through the beginning of the Renaissance in the 1500s. These thousand years were characterized by unstable nation-states led by kings and nobility. Tribalism was rife, and…