Galen : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, December 9th, 1891 / [James Finlayson].
- Date:
- [1892]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Galen : a bibliographical demonstration in the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, December 9th, 1891 / [James Finlayson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![6 dendi, beginning with The Third Booke of Galen, called in Greeke depanevTiKoy; in Latine, Methodus Medendi, and going on to the sixt; also Claudus Galeni de Tumoribus preter naturam; and An Epitome upon Galens three bookes of naturall Faculties. This edition of Galen, which I show, was published in London in 1586; the bulk of the volume consists of a translation from Vigo, J. R. Coxe: The writings of Hippocrates and Galen epitomised from the original Latin translations, Phila- delphia, 1846, may also be mentioned, but I have not seen this work. Dr. Broadbent has translated into English, in his little book on The Pulse, London, 1890, part of Galen's Libellus de Pulsibus ad Tirones.** Sects in Galen's Time. It is scarcely within the scope of this demonstration to enter into a discussion of the sects existing in Galen's time, or even of Galen's doctrines; these require quiet study by yourselves. But I will read the following short extracts, which may put these matters before you sufficiently for our present purpose. Dr. Adams says IPaulus /Egineta, vol. i, p. 12, London, 1814 :— [Various Sects.] The empirics held that observation, experiment, and the application of known remedies in one case to others presumed to be of a similar nature constitute the whole art of cultivating medicine. Though their views were narrow and their information scanty when compared with some of the chiefs of the other sects, and although they rejected as useless and unattainable all knowledge of the causes and recondite nature of diseases, it is undeniable that, besides personal experience, they freely availed themselves of historical detail and of a strict analogy founded upon observation and the resemblance of phenomena. To this class we may refer Scribonius Largus, Marcellus, Plinius Valerianus, and a few others. The sect called the Rational, Logical, or Dogmatical, holding that there is a certain alli- ance and connection among all the useful and ornamental arts, maintained that it is the duty of tlie physician not to neglect any collateral science or subject. They therefore inquired sedulously into the remote and proximate causes of disease, and into the effects of airs, waters, places, pur- suits, food, diet, and seasons in altering the state of the human body, and in rendering it more or less susceptible of morbid changes. Looking upon general rules as not being of universal application, they held that the treatment ouglit to be modified according to the many incidental circumstances under which the patient might be placed. They freely and fully availed themselves of whatever aid they could derive from experience, analogy, and reasoning. Hippocrates, Galen, Aetius, Oribasius, Paulus yEgineta, Actuarius, and all the Arabian authorities may be looked upon as belonging to this sect. The Pneumatic sect, to which Aretceus pro- bably belonged, was nearly allied to the Dogmatical. The sect of the Methodists, rejecting altogether the consideration 8 Lists of the various treatises and editions may be found in tlie first volume of Kiilin's edition ; likewise in the articles on Galen in the Dic- tionnaire des Sciences Mddicalen, Biopraphie Mi'dicale, Paris, 1821; and in Dezeimeris: Dictionnaire historique de la MMecinc ancie.n.ne el mnderne, tome ii Partie 1, p. 450, Paris, 1831; also in Fahricius^: liihliotheca Gr:rca, Liber IV, cap. 17 {Eido(jium Galeni chronologicum, Auctore Philippo Labbeo), Haia- burgi, 1708 » C](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21902811_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
