Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/138

 GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE In other parts of his tract, Galen argues vigorously against what Erasistratus and others had said — and well said — as to the action of the bodily organs upon mechanical prin- ciples and according to the capacities of their forms. Galen's vitalism carries him into many a false counter-argument. His fundamental view may be given mainly in his words: " Thus every hypothesis of channels " as an explanation of natural functioning is perfect nonsense. For if there were not an inborn faculty given by Nature to each one of the organs at the very beginning, then ani- mals could not continue to live even for a few days. . . . For there is not a single animal which could live or endure for the shortest time if, possessing within itself so many different parts, it did not employ faculties which were attractive of what is appropriate, eliminative of what is foreign, and alterative of what is destined for nutrition. On the other hand, if we have these faculties, we no longer need channels, little or big, rest- ing on an unproven hypothesis, for explaining the secretion of urine and bile, and the con- ception of some favorable situation (in which point alone Erasistratus shows some common [ii6]