FAQ

Who was Galen?

Galen (129-200? A.D.) was the most outstanding physician of antiquity after Hippocrates. His anatomical studies on animals and observations of human physiology dominated medical theory and practice throughout Europe and the Islamic world for 1400 years.

Galen was born of Greek parents in Pergamum, Asia Minor (modern day Bergama, Turkey), which was then part of the Roman Empire. A shrine to the healing god Asclepius was located in Pergamum, and there young Galen began his medical training by observing the treatment of the ill and wounded.

His formal medical training began in 145 and lasted approximately 12 years. During this time, Galen traveled widely and studied medicine in Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria. When he returned to Pergamum in 157, he worked as a physician in a gladiator school and gained experience in trauma and wound treatment. He later regarded wounds as "windows into the body".

In about 161 he settled in Rome, where he became renowned for his skill as a physician, his animal dissections, and his public lectures. In 169, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius appointed Galen court physician as well as personal physician to his son Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus. Most of Galen's later life was probably spent in Rome.

Galen's works fall into three main categories: medical, philosophical, and philological, which are intimately intertwined. Many of his medical achievements came from his physiological and anatomical experimentation with live animals. One of his famous experiments involved the public dissection of a living pig where he cut its nerve bundles one at a time. He demonstrated that cutting the recurrent laryngeal nerve, now also known as Galen's Nerve, caused the pig stopped squealing. He also demonstrated reproducible muscular paralysis by severing specific spinal nerves. To study the function of the kidneys in producing urine, he occluded the ureters and observed renal swelling. Public animal dissection was central to Roman academic medical learning and considered a highly valuable method of testing medical theories. Medical students and teachers would attend these public gatherings, which frequently turned into debates.

Although he was not Christian, Galen's writings reflect a belief in a single Creator, and he declared that the body was an instrument of the soul. These beliefs made him acceptable to Christian, Muslim, and Hebrew scholars, and allowed his methods of Hippocratic medicine to dominate until the Renaissance when Vesalius, the sixteenth century anatomist, begin to dispel his authority.

How do I donate to Tag Days?

Please visit the Tag Days page.

What does the Galens Medical Society provide to the University of Michigan?

Loans

In prior years, Galens Medical Society and its alumni have provided a sum of money available for loan to defray costs related to residency interviewing. All fourth-year medical students were eligible to borrow a maximum of $2,000.00 at 0% interest until one month after graduation then 5% simple interest. Loans were made through the University of Michigan Medical School Financial Aid Office. This service has been currently suspended in the face of virtual residency interviewing.

Service

Beyond Tag Days, Galens members volunteer their time to help local organizations. In the past, Galens members have volunteered at events like the Big House Big Heart Run and baked cookies for families at the Ronald McDonald House. Members have also helped with providing winter clothing for 31 Washtenaw County families through Warm the Children and working with Girls on the Run.

Social

Galens strives to provide students from all four medical school classes the opportunity to socialize, form friendships, and escape the rigors of medical school life. Galens hosts numerous social events throughout the year including the annual fall tailgate, pumpkin carving, and bi-weekly bar nights. Additionally, every spring Galens members and our faculty honoraries dress to the nines for a night of good food and celebration at the annual banquet. The banquet is a time to enjoy good food and the company of friends, and to look back on the year's accomplishments. At each year's banquet, the Tag Days czars announce the amount of money raised that year for the children of Washtenaw County, and awards are given to those members who have gone above and beyond in the name of community service.

Smoker

The Galens Smoker is an annual musical parody of life at the Mecca and hands-down the most fun to be had at the University of Michigan Medical School. Written, directed, produced, and performed by medical students, the Smoker delights, amuses, impresses, and disgusts through its humorous and juvenile perspective on Michigan Medical School medical education, its gunner students, and its beloved faculty. Although humorous in nature, the purpose of the Smoker has been and continues to be the encouragement of cooperation and understanding between faculty and students. With the historic Lydia Mendelssohn theater as its venue and showcasing the superb talents of its writers, cast, and crew, the Smoker is always much anticipated by the entire University of Michigan medical community.