Galen and greek neuroscience (notes towards a preliminary survey)

Early Science and Medicine

Volumn 3, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 216-240

  Rocca, Julius ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 77955624323     PISSN: 13837427     EISSN: 15733823     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157338298X00158     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (57)

1. References to Galen are based on the edition of C.G. Kühn (Claudii Galeni Opera omnia, Vols. 1-20, Lipsiae, 1821-1833). Where better editions exist, these are cited according to editor.
2. These attributes stand in contradistinction to that given to the brain by Aristotle, whose physiological priorities were centred about the heart. Although Aristotle regards the heart as the central organ in sanguineous animals, he does not otherwise ascribe to it the capacities and functions of an organ as, as Galen does with the brain. For further analysis, see studies by G. Verbeke, "Doctrine du pneuma et entéléchisme chez Aristote", in G. E. R. Lloyd and G. E. L. Owen, Aristotle on mind and the senses, Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium Aristotelicum, Cambridge University Press, 1978, 191-214, 198;
3. P. Moraux, Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen II, 1984, 751.
4. See also the essay by Lloyd, "The empirical basis of the physiology of the Parva Naturalia", 215-239, at 224-225 in the above Proceedings.
5. De placitis Hippocratis et Piatonis (PHP) 480.21f. the pagination refers to the edition by P. De Lacy (CMG 5.4.1.2, pts. 1-2).
6. A. Souques rightly notes, "Galien a fondé la physiologie expérimentale. Ses magnifiques expériences sur le système nerveux suffiraient à le classer parmi les princes de la physiologie. "Les connaissances neurologiques de Galien", Revue Neurologique, 3, 1933, 297-340, 338.
7. J.S. Wilkie rightly notes that Galen's "experiments on the nervous system, in particular, carry total conviction as accounts of what he had himself actually done and seen." in D.J. Furley and J.S. Wilkie, Galen on Respiration and the Arteries, Princeton University Press, 1984, 48.
8. Galen's achievements with the cranial nerves have been admirably documented by E. Savage Smith in two quite detailed papers, "Galen's Account of the Cranial Nerves and the Autonomic Nervous System", Parts 1 and 2, CM, 1971, 77-98; 173-194.
9. In De locis affectis, a treatise devoted in significant measure to disorders of the nervous system, Galen states that the physician who knows from dissection where the nerves originate will better be able to treat those parts of the body affected by injury to their respective nerves (VIIK, 208). For an analysis of how Galen views (and, at times, manipulates) the concept of scientific demonstration, see now the essay by G.E.R. Lloyd, "Theories and Practices of Demonstration in Galen", in M. Frede and G. striker (eds), Rationality in Greek Thought, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 255-277, esp. 264-266.
10. O. Temkin, "On Galen's pneumatology", Gesnerus, 8, 1951, 180-189;
11. reprinted in The Double Face of Janus, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977, 154-161, 160.
12. Idem, Galenism. Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy, Cornell University Press, 1973, 19n.33.
13. For pneuma in general there are the pioneering studies of M. Wellmann, Die pneumatische Schule bis auf Archigenes. Philologische Untersuchungen XIV, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin, 1895;
14. T. Meyer-Steineg, "Studien zur Physiologie des Galenos", AGM, 1912, 172-224; VI, 1913, 417-448;
15. G. Verbeke, L'évolution de la doctrine du pneuma. Du Stoicisme à S. Augustin, Desclée De Brouwer, Paris/Éditions de l'Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, Louvain, 1945, 206-220. Verbeke's chief interest, which he readily acknowledges, is in pneuma as a spiritual concept (cf. 220f).
16. VK, 155=T121 (223, Von Staden). As H. von Staden notes, "for all the advances Herophilus made on the basis of human dissection, he still relied in part on the dissection of animals. This description (sc. of the rete) cannot readily be reconciled with human anatomy." Herophilus. The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria, Cambridge University Press, 1989, 179.
17. II.10-11, Helmreich (1.430-431, tr. May [modified]). M.T. May, Galen. On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body, Translated from the Greek with an Introduction and Commentary, Two Volumes, Cornell University Press, 1968.
18. At the beginning of the first book of De anatomicis administrationibus (AA), for example, Galen describes the Consul Flavius Boethus as one who pressed him to set down his anatomical observations (UK, 215-217), and who also arranged debates for Galen between members of the leading philosophical schools. For this see V. Nutton (1970), The Medical Profession in the Roman Empire from Augustus to Justinian, 50;
19. idem, "The Patient's Choice: A New Treatise By Galen", CQ 40 (1), 1990, 236-257, 249-256.
20. See also G. Bowersock (1969), Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969, 59-75.
21. W.L.H. Duckworth, Galen. On Anatomical Procedures. The Later Books, Cambridge University Press, 1962.
22. This is a translation from the Arabic of Books IX-XV of Anatomical Procedures. A previous edition, with German translation, was made by M. Simon, Die sieben Bücher der Anatomie des Galen, Leipzig, 1906.
23. See also the review of Duckworth by K. D. Keele, Med Hist, 7, 1963, 85-87.
24. The complete text of 15 books has been edited with an introduction, translation and notes by I. Garofalo, Galeno, Procedimenti anatomici, 3 vols., Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli Milan, 1991.
25. cf. De semine, CMG 5.3.1, 1992, 106.14-108.5
26. De Lacy; De usu bulsuum VK, 155-156.
27. cf. De Usu Partium, II, 438, Helmreich. Two good discussions on Galen's teleology are those by R.J. Hankinson, "Galen Explains the Elephant", Can. J. Phil., Suppl. 14, 1988, 135-157;
28. "Galen and the Best of All Possible Worlds", CQ, 39 (1), 1989, 206-227.
29. Commentaria cum amplissimis additionibus super Anatomiam Mundini, Bologna, 1521, 458-460.
30. In the Isagogae Breves (1522) Berengario speaks of the rete mirabile as if it does exist in humans, although in one instance the rete is identified with the cavernous sinus (108) and the Circle of Willis (147). The pagination refers to the edition of the Isagogae by R. L. Lind, Jacopo Berengario Da Carpi. A Short Introduction To Anatomy (Isagogae Breves), University of Chicago Press, 1959. It must be remembered that the Isagogae should be regarded as a prosector's manual rather than the more comprehensive Commentaria. For Berengario and the use of the commentary in anatomical demonstration see R. K. French, "Berengario da Carpi and the use of the commentary in anatomical teaching", in A. Wear, R. K. French and I. M. Lonie (eds), The Medical Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 1985, 42-74.
31. 'Ali 'Abbâs, The Complete Book of Medical Art. This text, written in the tenth century, is edited and translated by J. de Koning, Leiden, 1913.
32. The above quotation is from J. Wiberg, "The Anatomy of the Brain in the Works of Galen and 'Ali 'Abbâs, a comparative historico-anatomical study." Janus, 19, 1914, 17-32; 84-104, 92.
33. The first half includes a translation of Book IX of Galen's Anatomical Procedures, and is in some respects a clearer translation than C. Singer (Galen. On Anatomical Procedures, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Oxford University Press, 1956).
34. A. Wear, "Galen in the Renaissance", in V. Nutton (ed), Galen: Problems and Prospects, London, 1981, 229-262, 234.
35. Yet the Vesalius of the Tabulae Anatomicae Sex (1538) still held to the existence of the rete. Its existence in humans was formally denied in the Fabrica (1543). But in 1540, as Demonstrator to Curtius' lectures on the Anatomia Mundini, Vesalius displayed the rete (of a sheep). See R. Eriksson, Andreas Vesalius'First Public Anatomy at Bologna, 1540. An Eyewitness Report by Baldasar Heseler together with his Notes on Matthaeus Curtius' Lectures on Anatomia Mundini", Edited, with an introduction, translation and notes, Uppsala, 1959, 288. Eriksson notes that Vesalius was well aware that he had previously affirmed the existence of the rete in man, and his demonstrations after 1543 were always given with a sheep's head as well as a human, so as to demonstrate the rete in the former, but show its absence in the latter. 25-26.
36. As A. Meyer and R. Hierons note in a discussion of this Circle, "Since they were all careful dissectors and observers, it is difficult to believe that this conspicuous structure at the base of the brain, striking even in brains of lower mammals, should have escaped their notice. They failed to recognize its significance, however, for several reasons: inability to distinguish arteries from veins, the bewildering number of ramifications, and, above all, preoccupation with the rete mirabile. Behind this rete there loomed the incredible authority of Galenic anatomy and physiology, magnified by its incorporation into scholastic concepts of the body-mind problem." "Observations on the History of the 'Circle of Willis'", Med Hist 6 1962, 119-130, 123.
37. A most comprehensive review on the subject is by C. G. De Gutievrrez-Mahoney and M. M. Schechter, "The Myth of the Rete Mirabile in Man", Neuroradiology 4, 1972, 141-158.
38. "Herophilus not only correctly recognised the vascular nature of these plexuses,⋯. but, Galen seems to imply, their projection into the ventricles." Herophilus, 180.
39. D. H. M. Woollam, "Concepts of the brain and its functions in classical antiquity", in F. L. N. Poynter (ed), The History and Philosophy of Knowledge of the Brain and its Function, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1958, 6-18, 5.
40. I discuss this in "Galen and the ventricular system", forthcoming in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.
41. Galen is notorious in professing uncertainty as to the exact nature of the soul. At PHP 598.30ff, for example, he asserts that he has "demonstrated" the soul has three forms, but as to its substance or anything else about it, he remains silent. For the question of the soul's immortality see, see for example, Quod animi mores, III, 36, Marquardt, Scr.min. II. To Galen, all such theorising is outside the domain of practical medical science, it belongs to philosophers (PHP 600.15-19).
42. A point well noted by A. Debru in her excellent study of Galen's respiratory physiology. She points out that it is precisely the rigour of Galen's anatomy and physiology that lends to pneuma an epistemological status all its own: "L'anatomie (la cavité des ventricules cérébraux, le plexus réticulé) et l'expérimentation donnent au pneuma invisible un status épistémologique beaucoup plus sûr que celui de 'substance' de l'âme." Le corps respirant. La pensée physiologique chez Galien, E.J. Brill, 1996, 147.
43. For a careful analysis of PHP II and III, see now T. Tieleman, Galen & Chrysippus on the Soul. Argument & Refutation in the De Placitis, Books II-III, E.J. Brill, 1996, especially 38-55. For the cited passage above, see 10.
44. Harris correctly notes in connection with Galen's description of the rete mirabile that, "We cannot assume that he is trying to describe the choroid plexus, since he carefully distinguishes this from the retiform, nor can we identify it with the tela choroidea of the third ventricle which he would have regarded as part of the choroid", The Heart, 357.
45. For Galen on his use (and misuse) of Hippocrates see for example the accounts of G.E.R. Lloyd, "Galen on Hellenistics and Hippocrateans: contemporary battles and past authorities" in idem, Methods and Problems in Greek Science, Cambridge University Press, 1991, 398-416;
46. D. Manetti and A. Roselli, "Galeno commentatore di Ippocrate", ANRW II. 37.2, 1994, 1529-1635.
47. The experiment is reviewed by Harris, The Heart, 353-354;
48. D.J. Furley and J.S. Wilkie (1984), Galen on Respiration and the Arteries, 48-50.
49. And A. Debru (1996), Le corps respirant, op. cit., 148-150, whose account is a judicious one, fully cognisant of the contextual dependency of the carotid ligation experiments.
50. According to J. S. Wilkie, "A puzzle arising from Galen's account is why he did not consider the possibility of the brain receiving blood and pneuma from the heart thorough the vertebral arteries⋯ That Galen knew of the existence of the vertebral arteries is certain; but he also knew that the terminations of their principal trunks lie in the region of the hindbrain. It is possible, therefore, that he thought these arteries could be disregarded as not supplying anything to the forebrain." "Galen's experiments and the origin of the experimental method", in Furley and Wilkie (1984), 47-57, 48-49. This seems correct, given that Galen does not utilise the vertebral arteries to any significant extent in his physiology.
51. The pitfalls of one such approach are vividly illustrated thus, "[T]he air entering the brain through the nose seemed only of secondary importance in this chain of integrated (sc. blood flow, respiration and the nervous system) reactions. But Galen had failed to grasp that the pulmonary respiration alone could maintain the nervous system like all other organs. He did not recognize that a single factor was absorbed from the inhaled air as support of all vital activities (oxygen)." R.E. Siegel, Galen on psychology, psychopathology, and function and diseases of the nervous system, S. Karger, Basel, 1973, 38-39.
52. "L'explication des faits reste très prudente: il est 'raisonnable de penser que' (eúlogon) la nature procède ainsi, il 'semble', il 'paraît'". A. Debru, "Expérience, plausibilité et certitude chez Galien", in J.A. López- Férez (ed), Galeno. Obra, pensamiento, y influencia, Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia, Madrid, 1993, 31-40, 39.
53. The experiment was repeated by Astley Cooper in 1836, with remarkably similar results (arterial anastomoses were found to have supplied the brain). Wilkie comments on this experiment; "in Galen's dog the circulation of the brain could well have been maintained by such anastomoses, together with the vertebral arteries. The tying of the arteries would have diminished the circulation and this diminution could well have been exposed by forcing the animal to exert itself, exactly in accordance with Galen's description." In Furley and Wilkie (1984), 50, who quote from Cooper's experiment (49-50).
54. J. Kollesch, De instrumente odoratus, CMG Supp. V, 1964.
55. And see the commentary at 85. Such a passage is two-way: waste-products from the brain come out from as well (60.27 Kollesch), cf. De usu partium, 1.471, Helmreich; PHP 462.13-16, where the organ of smell is described as lying in the anterior ventricle.
56. For the discussion of this see E. Savage Smith (1971), "Galen's account of the cranial nerves and the autonomic nervous system", op. cit., 83-84. For the so-called lumen in the optic nerve see May (1968), op.cit., 399-400 n42.
57. He does not give explicit references, merely referring to demonstrations in other works, which are infuriatingly brief. However, we have noted the relevant ones in the course of this discussion, such as UP 1.471, Helmreich, and De usu resp. IVK, 502-504.