Link to the episode: www.buzzsprout.com/1402771

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Things I link to in the episode

Temperaments Personality Quiz: https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/O4TS/

Galen

Introduction

This is A Viral Podcast and I am its viral host. As part of my scientists important to Epidemiology and Public Health season, we are addressing

Claudius Galen. I am not a professional and links to the resources I use are in the description.

Part One: Who Was Galen?

Claudius Galen was born in 129 AD in Pergamon. Today, Pergamon is in Turkey, at the time it was in the Eastern Roman Empire. He was the son of Nicon, a wealthy architect that believed his son to be brilliant. When Galen was 16, Nicon had a dream where Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine, instructed him to focus Galen’s study towards medicine and health. Despite dropping out of his philosophy classes, he continued to think.

Studying Medicine

For nearly four years, Galen studied at the local hospital. But, at about 20 years old, his father died. He used his inheritance to travel the Mediterranean studying medicine. After about four years of travel, he settled in Alexandria for five years. He didn’t like Alexandria, but they had the best med school, so you know…

At 28, he returned home and became a physician.

Practicing Medicine

Galen started practicing with the Temple of Pergamon’s High Priest’s gladiators. He did recognize the importance diets have over health. He also viewed wounds as windows to observe the body. Galen is simultaneously some ahead-of-his-time genius and just weird. Though, using wounds was one of the only ways at the time to observe the human body because Rome outlawed the dissection of humans in 150 AD, about seven years after Galen began as a physician. He learned how to properly, relative to the time, treat wounds and learned about hygiene.

The Road to Rome

After five years as a physician to the High Priest, Galen left towards Rome. He did not stay for long. Like all of the physicians in Rome hated him, they practiced medicine differently. And there was no love lost between the other Roman physicians and Galen, he called them unscrupulous thieves and said they cared more about money than helping people. So, after less than a year in Rome, he fled for Pergamon. But, sure his colleagues hated him and were maybeee stealing from him, so what? He had some friends in high places. Or, you know, at least one. But sometimes, that’s enough. And by that, I mean the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is quoted as regarding Galen as | First among doctors and unique among philosophers. | I mean, when the Roman Emperor recognizes your name, and you’re not like dead, you know you’re doing pretty well. And also, we still know that he said that, I think that’s impressive.

Physician to Commodus

A year after his departure from Rome, Galen became the personal physician to Commodus, the son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. At this point, Galen was forty years old and it was 169 AD. Eleven years later, Commodus became emperor. During his time as Physician to Commodus, Galen wrote to avoid him. In 192, Commodus was murdered and the next big emperor was Septimus Severus, the first African emperor of Rome. That part isn’t really important to Galenism, it’s just interesting. But, it was impressive that Galen continued to be the Physician to the Emperor after this new regime.

Part Two: Why Galen?

So far, I’ve told you about some Physician to the Roman Emperor, a few Roman emperors, so what? There had to have been plenty of Physicians from one of many empires throughout history, so why this guy?

During his time as a Physician, Galen wrote a lot. He also did demonstrations to present his ideas about medicine. He based his thoughts on several Greek physicians like Hippocrates, Asclepiades, and Herophilos. He mentioned these physicians, and many more, by name which is how we know about some of them, and their discoveries, today. With these writings, he basically created the philosophy of medicine for 1500 years.

Galen’s Impact on Medicine

Despite finding problems with Galen’s methods, nobody was able to undermine his philosophies on medicine until the 1500s. New methods did not become common practice until the 1800s.

Why was Galen Wrong?

Due to the ban on dissecting human bodies that Rome implemented in 150, Galen had to use animals when he couldn’t find and use windows.

And obviously, Galen didn’t have access to the technology that we have now.

Galenism

Galen contributed a lot to medical philosophy. One of his main philosophies was Humoralism.

Humoralism

Humoralism is the idea that humans contain four humors in them at all times, blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or gall. Humans need the right amount of each of them. Each humor has two of four natures. Blood is hot and moist, phlegm is cold and moist, yellow bile is hot and dry, and black bile is cold and dry. This idea about humors led to the four temperaments: lymphamatic or phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric, and sanguine. These temperaments are extensions of the humors, and the balance they have in the body. When the humors were imbalanced, so were the temperaments, which caused illness. You can actually take temperament quizzes, to see which of them aligns with yourself. I will link one in the description. … I am apparently melancholic. … Yay??

There is a vital force in the body that works to maintain the balance of humors. Like if there was a specific force of the body dedicated to maintaining homeostasis. This is the way our bodies try to reach and maintain an equilibrium. To maintain this vital force, according to Humoralism, food would be eaten. Which did help to spread the idea that diet is important to one’s health. By eating bad foods, you increase how much of a bad humor there is, which the body needs to get rid of. Different stages of digestion were assigned humors.

Galenist Humoralism is derived from Hippocratic ideas from the sixty or so treatises that make up the Hippocratic Corpus. These were written between 430 and 330 BCE. While a Hippocratic idea, these treatises were not only written by Hippocrates.

Impacts of Humoralsim

The idea of bloodletting can be traced back to the belief that releasing the blood would help the humors balance. Humors were also assigned to seasons, where there might be an excess in that humor. Spring and blood, yellow bile and summer, black bile in the fall, and phlegm for winter. It can also be connected to the idea of starving a fever and feeding a cold, depending on whether an illness was a hot or a cold illness. A fever should be cooled down, which we do by not eating. The opposite for a cold. Now we know that both are caused by viruses that should be treated with rest and fluids. And for the flu, get vaccinated! Get vaccinated whenever it’s recommended by your doctor, that is my medical non-professional opinion. … Oh, and don’t starve a fever. Your body is raising your temperature for a reason. The fever is not the disease, it is part of your body’s response to fighting the disease. It takes energy to raise your body temperature, so you need to keep supplying your body with energy. Which we do with food.

Outside of Humoralism

So outside of the utterly riveting topic of Humoralism, what else did Galen come up with? I couldn’t really find much. He wrote treatises, of course, but Humoralism is what we remember him for.

Part Three: An Application to History

I feel that to truly understand why Galenism became the way medicine was for as long as it was, I should explain the history that contextualizes it. Galenism mainly spread to Europe and the Middle East.

Fall of Rome

Galen died around 216 AD, and Rome, or at least its Western Component, fell around 476 AD. With the Fall of Rome, Europe fell into the Middle Ages. While the Eastern European empire survived until the 15th century, Islamic Caliphates developed in the Middle East.

Europe

During this time, Europe forgot about indoor plumbing, tied serfs to manors of land, and was only really connected by the Roman Catholic Church. So, with Europe in such disarray, how was the Middle East?

Middle East

As Dar-al Islam conquered what was Persia, life flourished. The House of Wisdom was formed and knowledge was a priority of the Abbassid Caliphate, which lasted until the 1200s. Despite the invasions occurring, trade grew. And with it, cultural blending led to the growth of ideas. Some philosophers in the Abbassid Caliphate did find evidence against Humoralism but were not powerful enough to change the accepted practices of medicine.

Outro

Thank you for listening to this episode of A Viral Podcast.

The next episode will either continue this season and address another scientist or I’ll finally get my first episode of my HIV and AIDS season done.

Bibliography

https://www.famousscientists.org/galen/

https://www.medicinenet.com/humoralism/definition.htm

https://www.history.co.uk/article/severus-rome%E2%80%99s-first-african-emperor

https://iranicaonline.org/articles/humoralism-1

https://becker.wustl.edu/news/humoralism-and-the-seasons/

https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/live-well/2016/11/the-truth-about-feeding-a-cold-and-starving-a-fever/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFeed%20a%20cold%2C%20starve%20a,fueled%2C%20so%20eating%20was%20recommended.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-the-fall-of-rome-112688