་ both of considerable rank, and the first character for learning. Among others, he had a particular connection with Eudemus, a peripatetic philosopher of great repute. This person he cured of a fever, which from a quartan, had degenerated into a triple quartan, by the ill-judged application which the patient had made of the theriacum; and what is somewhat remarkable, Galen cured the malady with the same medicine that had caused it; and even predicted when the fits would first cease to return, and in what time the patient would entirely recover. Indeed, so great was his skill and sagacity in these fevers, that if we may believe his own words, he was able to predict from the first visit, or from the first attack, what species of a fever would appear, a tertian, quartan, or quotidian. He was also greatly esteemed by Sergius Paulus, prætor of Rome; as also by Barbarus, uncle to the emperor Lucius; by Severus, then consul, and afterwards emperor; and lastly, by Boethus, a person of consular dignity, in whose presence he had an opportunity of making dissections, and of shewing, particularly, the organs of respiration and the voice. His reputation, likewise, was much increased by the success which he had in recovering the wife of Boethus, who on that occasion presented him with four hundred pieces of gold. But that on which he valued himself most, was the case of a lady, who was said to lie in a very dangerous condition; whose disorder he discovered to be love, the object of which was a rope-dancer; thus rivalling the discovery of the love of Antiochus for Stratonice, which had given so much celebrity to Erasis+ tratus. After a residence of about four or five years at Rome, he returned to Pergamus *. But he had not been there long, when the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, who had heard of his fame, sent for him to Aquileia, where they then resided. He had no sooner arrived in this city, than the plague, which had shewn itself a little before, broke out with fresh and greater fury, so that the emperors were obliged to remove, attended by a very small retinue. Lucius died on the road, but his corpse was carried to Rome; and Galen found means, though not without some trouble, to follow soon after. He had He tells us in another place, that he was forced from Rome at this time by the plague, and apparently both causes conspired in determining him to that measure. Galen de lib. propr c. 1. not been long returned, when Marcus acquainted him with his intention to take him in his train to Germany; but Galen excused himself, alledging, that Esculapius, for whom he had a particular devotion, ever since the God cured him of a mortal imposthume, had advertised him in a dream never to leave Rome again. The emperor yielding to his solicitations, he continued in the city; and it was during the absence of Marcus that he composed his celebrated treatise "De usu partium," and some others. All this while the faculty persecuted him continually, insomuch that he was apprehensive of some design against his life. Under this suspicion, he retired very often to a country-house, where Commodus the emperor's son resided. That prince was then under the tuition of Pitholaus, to whom the emperor had given orders, if his son should be taken ill, to send for Galen. This order gave him an opportunity of attending the prince in a fever, which appeared very violent on the first access. He had the good fortune to remove the disease, and the following eulogium was made by Faustina the princess: "Galen,' says she, "shews his skill by the effects of it, while other physicians give us nothing but words." He also cured Sextus, another son of Aurelius Marcus, and predicted the success, against the opinion of all his colleagues. Thus he raised his fame above the reach of envy; and he continued not only to preserve, but increase it. The emperor, after his return from the German expedition, was suddenly seized in the night with violent pains in the bowels, which, being followed by a great flux, threw him into a fever. Next day, he took a dose of hiera picra, and another of the theriacum *; after which, the physicians who • The emperor during his absence had sent to Galen to prepare the theriacum in the manner he had seen it done by his first physician Demetrius. The commission was executed entirely to the satisfaction of Marcus, as he signified after his return to Rome. Galen observes, that the emperor was a good judge of this medicine, being used to take it every day as a preservative against poison; and he found that made by Galen so good, that he resolved to make use of it soon after it was finished, contrary to the usual custom of letting it stand awhile, till the pium had lost some of its soporiferous quality. Ibid. de Antidotis, lib. i. I had attended his person in the army, ordered him to be kept quiet, giving him nothing but a little broth for the space of nine hours. Galen, being called in soon after, attended with the rest, and they, upon feeling the patient's pulse, were of opinion that he was going into an ague. The emperor, observing that Galen stood still without approaching him, asked the reason: Galen replied, that his pulse being touched twice by his physicians, he depended upon them, not doubting but they were better judges of the pulse than he was. The emperor, little satisfied with this answer, immediately held out his arm. Galen having considered the pulse with great attention, "I pronounce (says he) that we have nothing to do here with the access of an ague; but the stomach is overcharged with something that remains undigested, which is the true cause of the fever." These words were no sooner uttered, than the prince cried out aloud, "That is the very thing, you have hit the case exactly ;" and repeating the words three times, asked what must be done for his relief. "If it was the case of any other person," replied Galen, "I should order a little pepper infused in wine, which I have often tried with success in this case; but as it is the custom to administer to sovereign princes only mild remedies, it suffices to apply hot to the stomach a piece of flannel dipped in the oil of spike." Marcus did not neglect to make use of both these remedies; and in the issue said to Pitholaus, his son's governor, "We have but one physician *. Galen is the only valuable man of the faculty.' Thus distinguished above his contemporaries, did this prince of physicians continue to practise at Rome, the capital of the world, till his death, which happened A. D. 201, in his 70th year. He had usually enjoyed a perfect state of health, the effect of observing a strict regimen both in diet and exercise: for, being subjected to frequent disorders in his younger days †, he studied his own con It is somewhat remarkable, that notwithstanding his frequent attend. ance, as well as cures performed upon this emperor, he never acquired the title of Arajater. Le Clerc's Hist. Lib. xi. c. i. p. 3. Perhaps the title was not coined at that time. + Before he was eight and twenty, he hardly passed a year without some disorder; we have already mentioned an imposthume, which was cured by the assistance of Esculapius. Of this he gives the following account: "Being afflicted," says he, "with a fixed pain in that part where the diaphragm is fastened to the liver, I dreamt, that Esculapius advised me to open that artery which lies between the thumb and second finger of my right hand. I did so, and immediately found myself well." stitution, and having fixed the methods of preserving it, followed them strictly. This was nothing more than taking care to eat such meats as were of easy and equal digestion, abstaining particularly from summer fruits, confining himself to figs and raisins, and using a constant and equal exercise. By following these rules, he never had any distemper, except once a fever of one day's continuance, occasioned by too much study and over-fatigue. He was a man endowed with excellent parts, and, having the advantage of the best education, became not only an eminent physician, but also a great philosopher; and was particularly happy in a facility of expression, and au unaffected eloquence; but the style of his works is extremely diffuse, his sentences are sometimes perplexed, and sometimes absolutely obscure. The great number of books which we have of his composing, to pass over those we have lost, are a convincing proof how little pains it cost him to write. Suidas tells us that he wrote not only on physic and philosophy, but also on geometry and grammar. There are reckoned above five hundred books of his upon physic only, and about half that number upon other sciences. He even composed two books, containing a catalogue of his works; shewing the time and place in which some of them were composed, together with the occasion of writing them, and the proper order of reading them t. Without entering into a long detail of all the particular treatises written by Galen, a vast collection of which is in the British Museum, it may be sufficient here to notice the different editions of the whole of his works that have been transmitted to us. The Greek editions are those of Aldus and Aud. Asulanus, printed at Venice, 1525, in 5 vols. folio, and of Hieron. Gemusæus, at Basil, 1538, in the same form. The Latin editions are, that of Paris, 1536, folio, printed by Simon Colinus; and reprinted at Lyons, in 1554, with additions and corrections, by Joan. Frellonius; that of Basil, 1542, folio, printed by Frobenius, and edited by Gemusæus; those of Basil again in 1549, 1550, and 1562; the last of which contains a pre It is certain some of them were lost in his life-time by a fire which destroyed the Temple of Peace at Rome, where they were deposited. That temple was one of the These stand at the head of the list of his works, by Chartier. schools of the "Hist. of Phy face by Conrad Gesner, in which he comments with great judgment on the merits of Galen and his works, and of his different translators: the edition of Venice, 1562, with the corrections of John Baptist Rasario: ten editions published at Venice by the Juntas in different years between 1541 and 1625; the ninth of which, printed in 1609, and the last, are precisely the same, and are the best and most correct lastly, an edition printed at Venice in 1541-45, by John Farræus, in 7 vols. 8vo, with the notes of Ricci. An edition of Galen's works, both in Greek and Latin, in an elegant form, was published at Paris, in 13 vols. folio, by René Chartier, including also the works of Hippocrates; it is deemed a correct work. As a physician, the ancients had the highest esteem for him. Athenæus, his contemporary, shews the great opinion he had of his merit as a philosopher, by making him a guest at his feast of the philosophers; where he not only compliments him upon the great number of his writings, but adds, that in elocution and perspicuity of style, he was inferior to none*. Eusebius, who lived about an hundred years after him, observes, that the veneration in which Galen was held as a physician, was such, that many looked upon him as a God, and even paid him divine worship; accordingly Trallian gives him the title of "most divine." Oribasius, who flourished soon after Eusebius, and was himself Archiater to Julian, testified his esteem for Galen, by the extracts he made of his works, as well as by the praises which he bestows upon him. Etius and Paulus Egineta have also copied Galen, especially the last, and his works were commented on by Stephen the Athenian. Avicenna, Averroes, and the rest of the Arabian physicians, who take the best of what they have from Galen, have not been wanting in their praises of him. After all, however, it is certain he had in his own time a considerable party to contend with, and these latter ages have raised up some powerful adversaries to his name. The practice of Hippocrates, which he laboured to re-establish, did not triumph over the other sects, immediately upon Galen's declaring against them. The sect of the methodists (as it was called) supported its credit for some ages It is not, indeed Athenæus, but the author of the arguments prefixed to his books, that says this, but that author was very ancient. Casaubon's notes upon Athenæus. |