Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/202

 that of the human being. Several of Galen's books on anatomy have come down to our time, but quite a number of others have been lost. From those which we possess, and especially from the one entitled "Anatomical Administrations," it is permissible to conclude that he was a most skilful dissector and an extremely close and careful observer, and that he was very particular to set down the results of his observations in admirably clear language. Indeed, Le Clerc assures us that Vesalius, the great Flemish anatomist of the sixteenth century, bestowed high praise upon Galen's anatomical descriptions; and that, too, notwithstanding the fact that the latter sometimes erred in his statements regarding the similarity between certain parts observed in dissections of an animal and the corresponding parts in man. In one of his treatises Galen states distinctly that the arteries contain blood. In another he gives a remarkably full and accurate description of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and many of the nerves.

He describes the optic nerve, the oculo-motorius and trochlearis, the different ramifications of the trigeminus, the acusticus and facialis, the vagus and glossopharyngeus, the nerves of the pharynx and larynx, the sympatheticus (with the accompanying ganglia), and the radial, ulnar, median, crural and ischiatic nerves. (Puschmann.)

Although it is true that certain important anatomical and physiological facts are found recorded for the first time in the works of Galen, this must not be accepted as evidence that Galen himself is the real discoverer of these facts. The most that can be claimed for him is that he is the first writer to bring the facts in question to the knowledge of us moderns. When the ancient books that have been lost are once more brought to light, as they very well may be at any time, we shall be able, perhaps, to give credit where credit is due. But there is one department in which Galen did experimental work of an entirely original character and for which he deserves unstinted praise. I refer to the experiments which he made concerning the physiology of