What made Galen famous? Galen was born in AD 129 in Pergamum, Greece.

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What made Galen famous?

Galen was born in AD 129 in Pergamum, Greece.  Pergamum had an important Asclepion at which Galen first began his training, at the age of 16.  He then spent twelve years travelling to improve his knowledge and visited famous places like Alexandria and Smyrna.  After his travels he returned to Pergamum and became a doctor to the gladiators.  He was able to treat stab wounds, broken bones and other injuries and this was ideal for Galen to learn more about the skill of surgery.

In AD 161 Galen travelled to Rome.  He was very ambitious and worked hard at gaining a reputation.  He became doctor to the Emperor’s son and wrote over 100 medical texts.  Galen supported the theories of Hippocrates on ethics and OBSERVATION and he believed in the four humours.  He increased his anatomical knowledge (gained from treating wounded gladiators) by dissecting animals.  He wasn’t allowed to dissect human bodies or study skeletons so he often had to wait for CHANCE opportunities like a flood in a cemetery or a rotting corpse on a gibbet.  Some of Galen’s work was wrong because of his limited bodies to study.  He described livers as the wrong shape and thought that the “rete mirabile” which is a network of blood vessels on the undersurface of an animal’s brain would be found in humans.  He also let his ambition take over.  He only recorded his successful cases and regularly saw what he wanted to see – such as tiny pore in the septum of the heart, which would let blood pass from the right side to the left side.  He also thought that the blood started life in the liver and then travelled around the body picking up spirits and believed at the end it was consumed, rather than recirculated.

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Nevertheless, Galen was very convincing and his fame and popularity meant that many did not question his judgement.  His work continued to be used as the primary source of medical knowledge for some 1400 years.  His books survived when the Roman Empire collapsed and were revived by doctors in the Arab World.  He did not stress the polytheistic (more than one God) side of Roman culture so he didn’t offend the later monotheistic Muslims and Christians.  By 1100 versions of Galen’s work were being translated into Latin in Spain, which was partly Christian and partly Islamic.  The crusades, WAR, ...

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This is a well researched report. 1. The information sources need to be referenced. 2. Including examples is good practice. 3. The report needs to have a conclusion. ***