Galen, 129 BC, was born in the eastern Roman Empire’s Pergamon city. It is currently in Bergama, Turkey. Galen was born and raised in Pergamum, which was a highly intellectual community and one of the most significant cultural centers of ancient times. The Great Library of Alexandria did nothing but enhance its library.
Nicon, Galen’s father, was a brilliant mathematician and architect. He gave him very strict training so that his son could become one of Bergama’s greatest minds. He made sure his son received a well-rounded education in classical Greek geometry, philosophy, logic, and literature. Galen learned from his father not to subscribe to any particular school of thought, to think for himself, and to make his own decisions in every situation. He ordered him to refrain from wasting time with the philosophical and thought trends of the day.
Galen’s family used slaves to perform all the menial tasks, just like other wealthy people at the time did. Galen spent the majority of his time studying medicine, but he secretly kept thinking about philosophy. The best doctors, in his opinion, conflated philosophy and medicine.
Galen worked as a medical student in one of the nearby hospitals at the time, where he spent about four years learning the principles of medicine and receiving instruction from Satyrus, a renowned physician.
Nicon, Galen’s father, left him a sizable inheritance when he passed away. Galen, who was 20 years old, explored the entire Mediterranean region to learn the most recent medical procedures. At the prestigious Alexandria Medical School, where he studied for roughly five years, he concluded his travels. Galen observed everything he could from this.
At the age of 28, he visited Bergama once more. He saw every medical teaching he could under the circumstances, using the financial power he inherited from his father. Galen became a renowned physician and went back to Pergamum. He had studied the various prehistoric medical theories from all over the Mediterranean for 12 years. He had observed both ineffective and successful techniques, and he was using his own abilities to try to hone a variety of abilities.
He was hired as a physician for the Pergamon High Priest Temple’s gladiators. Galen claimed that his four years in this practice helped him gain a deeper understanding of medicine. Galen recognized the significance of a balanced diet for the well-being and physical fitness of gladiators.
He considered the gladiators’ injuries, which he viewed as “windows” that allowed various body parts to function. He discovered the ideal methods for treating wounds and realized the significance of good hygiene habits. He significantly decreased the gladiator death rate by winning the high priest’s admiration.
Galen’s increasingly complex understanding of human anatomy depends on “Windows,” as dismembering a human body had been forbidden in the 150th-year Roman Empire. Galen created a school of thought using his own and other people’s discoveries, which became the standard in medical practice for the next 1500 years in Europe and the Middle East. Galen’s work may have had issues with direction, as Arab and Persian physicians may have noticed, but it doesn’t seem that anyone had the power to completely overthrow what had the final say in medicine for centuries. Galen thought dissection was the most effective method for learning anatomy. He made some errors because he was forced to extrapolate from the decomposition of pigs and primates since he was unable to do so with human bodies.
Galen’s contributions to medicine,
Carefully monitoring the patient’s pulse, determining the disease, and making a diagnosis.
Screening the urine of the patient.
The removal of eye cataracts.
The identification of physical symptoms brought on by psychological distress.
Evidence that kidneys are where urine is produced.
Contrary to earlier belief, liquid blood rather than gaseous air is transported through the arteries.
The identification of seven of the twelve cranial nerves, including the optic and acoustic nerves.
Two blood types have been identified (red and dark red)
The understanding that the heart has four valves, which permit blood to flow in a single direction.
It is unknown what killed Galen or when he passed away. Scientists BC. think he passed away in Rome in 216, most likely at the age of 85.
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