Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Galenic medicine

  • Galen: Medical

    Few figures in the history of medicine have left a legacy as profound and enduring as Claudius Galenus, better known simply as Galen. Born in Pergamon in 129 CE, Galen was educated in the vibrant intellectual centers of the Greco-Roman world, studying philosophy, anatomy, and medicine in places such as Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria. His…

  • Experimental evidence for the humoral circulatory system

    Mark GrayKansas City, Kansas Humoralism, otherwise known as Hellenistic or Galenic medicine, posited the existence of four humors that were required to be kept in balance to maintain health. Blood was special among these humors, believed to deliver both physical and spiritual nourishment to the body.1 To a modern scientist, the physiology ancient Greek physicians…