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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    large canines, far from walking or running on their hind/'legs, can hardly stand upright. The more human sort have a nearly erect posture; but firsdy the head of the femur fits into the socket at the hip/joint rather transversely,^^ and secondly, of the muscles 22^ which extend downward to the knee, some go further [than in man].^^ Both these features check and impede erectness of posture, as do the feet themselves, which have comparatively narrow heels and are deeply cleft between the toes [Figs. 7,16-20]. These are but trifling differences and only slightly interfere with standing upright. But such apes as the dog/'faced baboons not only differ very greatly from man in form, but also have an obvious unlikeness to him in their bones [Fig. 4]. Of apes choose, then, those likest to man, and meanwhile read my writings, getting from them an exact knowledge of the bones. For from the start you will gain from having grown familiar with the terms for them. These will be useful for learning the anatomy of the other parts also. Moreover, should you light on a human skeleton, you will more easily recognize and recall all that you have learned. But if you rely on reading, without constandy observing these bones, and on a sudden 22^ come on a human skeleton, you may be at a loss. For to recall observed phenomena demands continued familiarity. Do we not readily recognize those we often meet, while passing by those seldom seen? Hence the much/vaunted ^empirical' anatomy,^^ to which some physicians attach special value, must fail to explain the nature of the observations which have been made. For to understand [a dissection] when suddenly seen, one must have observed each part at leisure beforehand, preferably in human subjects^^ or, failing these, in animals similar to man. In an epidemic of the anthrax in many cities of Asia, a number [of patients] presented parts stripped of skin and even of flesh.^7 I was then still at home [i.e. before a.d. 152], study/ ing under Satyrus. He had been three years in Pergamum with Costunius Rufinus,^^ who was building for us the temple of 22^ Zeus Asclepios. Not long before there died Quintus,^^ the master of Satyrus. All of us, who saw Satyrus demonstrating