Galen on anatomical procedures : de Anatomicis administrationibus / translation of the surviving books with introduction and notes by Charles Singer.

  • Galen
Date:
1956
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Galen on anatomical procedures : de Anatomicis administrationibus / translation of the surviving books with introduction and notes by Charles Singer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (20) Galen's De ossihus ad tirones, printed in K. ii. 732-778, is the only suu viving anatomical work of antiquity based directly on human material. As its title implies, it is elementary. The translator has published an English version of this work in Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1952, xlv (Sect. Hist. Med.), pp. 25-34. (21) Evidence that some human material at least was still systematically used for instruction in the last third of the second century. (22) Galen does not make clear here what species of ape he dissected. He certainly used more than one. He preferred the Barbary ape (Macaca inuus) but it is probable that he relied chiefly on the Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). (23) In the Barbary ape the neck of the femur is more transverse than in the Rhesus and forms with the shaft an angle of about 100°. In the adult human male this angle is about 125°, but varies in inverse proportion to the width of the pelvis and the height of the individual. It is less in females than in males. The angle, in human beings at least, is widest in infancy and decreases during growth. See Fig, 7. (24) This is notably the case with the outer hamstring tendon, that of the biceps femoris. The crural insertion of this muscle in Macaca mulatta extends about half'-way down the shaft of the tibia. On the inner side the insertion of the gracilis, which is a robust muscle in apes, extends a considerable distance below the tibial collateral ligament [Figs. 16 and 17]. (25) The Empiric anatomists, against whom Galen constantly tilts, were content to gain their anatomical knowledge in the course of surgical practice. They regarded dissection of apes as useless. (26) A hint that human dissection was still being occasionally practised. (27) It is impossible to identify the disease here called anthrax. It was certainly not what we now call by that name. The word means primarily 'char/ coal': hence 'dark substances' or 'dark patches'; compare Latin carhunculus from carho, charcoal. (28) Costunius Rufinus is not mentioned elsewhere in classical writings. The name kostounios is perhaps a scribal misreading for the abbreviation of k[oint]osiounios. Another possible identification is with aROUPHiNOS often mentioned on dedicatory inscriptions at Pergamum. (29) Galen's De musculonm dissectione ad tirones, K. xviii, pt. ii. 926-1026. (30) Lycus ofMacedon (died c. a.d. 170, see pp. 6, iii, 127 of translation), a pupil of Quintus (note 14), was an Empiric. Galen had an especial dislike for him. He wrote extensively and composed a book on muscles. In it he missed the pterygoid and also certain neck muscles. See pp. 107-8 of translation. He had his own theory of renal secretion. None of his works survives. See note 98.