Galen: On the Natural Faculties 9780674990784, 0674990781

Citation preview

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES

LOEB, LL D.

EDITED BY

PAGE,

C.H., LiTT.D. tT. E. tW. H. D. ROUSE, litt.d. tE. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D. L. A. POST, M.A. E. H. WARMINGTON, m.a. f.r hist.soc.

GALEN ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES

GALEN ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

ARTHUR JOHN

BROCK,

M.D.

XDINBCBQB

LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSEITS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS lICMLn

First Printed 1916 Reprinted 1928, 1947, 1952

;

PREFACE The

text used

is

(\vith

a few uu important modifi-

cations) that of Kiihn (Vol. II), as edited

Helmreich

by Georg

The numbers

Teubner, Leipzig, 1893.

;

of the pages of Kiihn's edition are printed at the side

mark

of the Greek text, a parallel

the

indicating

exact

of

point

(

||

)

in the line

division

betveen

Kiihn's pages.

Words

in the English text

which are enclosed

in

square brackets are supplementary or explanatory practically all explanations, however, are relegated to

In the footnotes,

the footnotes or introduction. attention

is

drawn to

philological interest

Avords

also,

which are of particular

from the point of view of modern

medicine. I

have made the translation directly from the

Greek I

;

whei*e passages of special difficulty occurred,

have been able to compare

my own

Linacre's Latin translation (1523)

version with

and the French

rendering of Charles Daremberg (1854-56) respect

I

am

;

in this

also peculiarly fortunate in having

had

W. Pickard Cambridge of Balliol Oxford, who most kindly went througli the

the help of Mr. A. College,

V

PREFACE proofs

and made many valuable suggestions from the

point of view of exact scholarship.

My

best thanks are due to the Editors for their

courtesy and for the kindly interest they have taken in the work.

have also gratefully to acknowledge

I

much

assistance and encouragement from Sir William Osier, Regius Professor of Medi-

the receipt of

cine at Oxford,

and from Dr.

J.

D. Comrie,

first

lecturer on the History of Medicine at Edinburgh University.

D'Arcy W. Thompson of UniDundee, and Sir W. T. Tiiiseltondirector of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Professor

versity College,

Dyer, late

Kew, have very kindly helped me

to identify several

animals and plants mentioned by Galen. I

cannot conclude without expressing a word of

gratitude to Patrick

my former

Geddes

and

biological teachers. Professors J.

Arthur

Thomson.

The

experience reared on the foundation of their teaching has gone far to help

me

in interpreting the great

medical biologist of Greece. I should be glad to think that the present work might help, however little;, to hasten the coming reunion between the "humanities" and modern bio-

logical science

;

their present separation

I

believe to

be against the best interest of both. A.

22nd Stationary Hospital, Aldershot. March, 1916. VI

J. B.

CONTENTS PAGR

PKKFACB

V

INTRODUCTION

Lx

BIBLIOGRAPHY

xli

SYXOPSIS OF CHAPTEBS

BOOK

I

BOOK

II

xliii

1

115

BOOK in

221

INDEX AND GLOSSART

333

INTRODUCTION If the

work of Hippocrates be taken

as repre- Hippocr«tee

renting the foundation upon wliieh the edifice of

Greek medicine was reared, then the work who lived some six hundred years later, may be looked upon as the summit or apex of the same edifice. Galen's merit is to have crystallised or brought to a focus all the best work of the Greek medical schools which had preceded his own time. It is essentially in the form of Galenism that Greek medicine was transmitted to after ages. historical

of Galen,

The ancient Greeks referred the origins of medicine to a

god Asklepios

(called in Latin Aesculapius),

The BeginM^fTc-aie ^**ee due to narrowness of pylorus length of stay depends on whether di