Galen : two bibliographical demonstrations in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 9th December, 1891, and 30th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson.

James Finlayson

Date:: 1895

Credit: Galen : two bibliographical demonstrations in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 9th December, 1891, and 30th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$supervenes a change in the humours, so that the whole body is affected with jaundice.—(Kuhn, torn, viii, p. 355). The quaint rendering by Gale in his translation of Galen'* Methodus Medendi, &c. (London, 1586, p. 126), gives us the definition of inflammation which held sway for centuries,-* and can scarcely be dispensed with even yet. [Inflammation.]—'' The Grecians used to call that an inflammation^ which cometh with great tumour or swelling in the fleshie parte, strained and stretched forth, resisting with pulsation and dolour, hot and red.—(Kiihn, torn, vii, p. 707). The following sketch shows Galen utilising his opportunities in impressing a rich client with his skill in curing his butler \ the dramatic manner in which he sent him to confront his master in alighting from his carriage, at a time when he was. supposed to be confined and still dangerously affected, is very amusing. I was once asked by a certain rich man, who lived in the suburbs of Rome, to come and see his butlei-, who was in danger of losing his sight, so he said; certainly he had been suffering much pain for the last twenty days. Moreover, the physician who was appointed to look after the rich man's household belonged to the sect of Erasistrateans, and had a great abhorrence of venesection. When, therefore, I knew, having seen the patient, that he was a full- blooded young man, and that his eyes were not yet ulcerated, but that there was much inflammation and discharge, that the eyelids were much thickened, and that in one there were even granulations (asperitates), causing dimness of sight, and more and more pain, and all increased by the inflammation and discharge; having seen all this, and learning the whole line of treatment which their doctor had employed, I said that I could not, of course, be constantly coming to the suburb, and that it was necessary, for at least three 20 « Notse vero inflammationis sunt quatuor, rubor at tumor cum calore et dolore (Celsus, lib. iii, 10). The definition is supposed by some to have descended from Erasistratus. See The New Sydenham Society's Lexicon^. Inflammation.$