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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    in public, but lacked lecturing ability. He, too, died and thus this book became public property, so that many got hold of it, though it was not for publication. I had indeed written it while still in Smyrna, to be with Pelops,^^ my teacher after Satyrus^^ the pupil of Quintus,^'^ before I had made any important or original contribution. Later I went to Corinth [a.d. 152], to hear Numisianus^^ 218 the most famous pupil of Quintus. Then I visited Alexandria [152-7] and several other places where I heard that Numisianus was living. Next I went home, but after no long time came to Rome [162], where I made many anatomical demonstrations for Boethus. He was constandy accompanied by Eudemus the Peripatetic,^^ by Alexander of Damascus,^'^ official exponent of Peripatetic doctrines in Athens, and often by other important officials, such as Sergius Paulus the Consul, present Governor of Rome,^^ a man as distinguished in philosophy as in affairs. But the treatise that I wrote for Boethus falls far short in lucidity and accuracy of what I propose now. And so to the opening. Chapter 2 [How to study the Skeletons of Men and Apes] 218 As poles to tents and walls to houses, so are bones to living creatures, for other features naturally take form from them and 2ip change with them. If an animal has a round skull, its brain must be round; if elongated, so must the brain be. If jaws be small and face oval, the muscles must correspond. So too, if jaws be large, the creature will have a great muzzle with muscles in keeping. Now of all living things the ape is likest man in viscera, muscles, arteries, veins, and nerves, as in the form of the bones. From the nature of these it walks on two legs and uses its fore^limbs as hands, and has the flattest sternum of all quadrupeds,and clavicles similar to man's, and a round face with narrow neck. With these characters its muscles must accord, for they are extended over the bones, reproducing their