加伦

Galen

拉丁语作Galenus

古罗马医师、作家和哲学家。出生於小亚细亚帕加马,西元157年任角斗士的医生,161年到罗马行医,成为罗马皇帝马可.奥勒利乌斯(Marcus Aurelius)的朋友和康茂德(Commodus)的医生。加伦视解剖学为基础科学,以动物实验为本,他辨认出七对颅神经,描述过心瓣膜,区分了动、静脉,认为动脉中流通血液而无空气。然而,如果把他的发现扩大到人体解剖学上就常是错误的。加伦根据希波克拉提斯(Hippocrates)的概念,相信有三个相连的身体系统(脑和神经司知觉和思维;心脏和动脉司生命动能;肝和静脉司营养和成长),以及四种体液(血液、黄胆汁、黑胆汁和黏液),人体健康有赖於这四种体液的平衡。当时很少人有技能来驳倒他这种吸引人的生理学理论。加伦曾写有三百多部作品,今仅存约一百五十部。随着作品被人翻译,他的影响传至拜占庭帝国、阿拉伯和西欧。16世纪人们对解剖的兴趣复燃,导致在解剖学上的一些新发现,推翻了其观点,当时维萨里发现他在解剖学上的几个错误,而哈维则重新修正了血液循环理论。

129~199?年

Galen

Greek physician, writer, and philosopher. Born in Pergamum, Asia Minor, he became chief physician to the gladiators in AD 157. Later, in Rome, he became a friend of Marcus Aurelius and physician to Commodus. Galen saw anatomy as fundamental and, based on animal experiments, described cranial nerves and heart valves and showed that arteries carry blood, not air. However, in extending his findings to human anatomy he was often in error. Following Hippocratic concepts (see Hippocrates), he believed in three connected body systems—brain and nerves for sensation and thought, heart and arteries for life energy, and liver and veins for nutrition and growth—and four humors (body fluids)—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—that needed to be in balance. Few had the skills to challenge his seductive physiological theory. He wrote about 300 works, of which about 150 survive. As they were translated, his influence spread to the Byzantine empire, Arabia, and then Western Europe. A revival of interest in the 16th century led to new anatomical investigations, which caused the overthrow of his ideas when Andreas Vesalius found anatomical errors and William Harvey correctly explained blood circulation.