Harvey and Galen : the Harveian oration ; delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 19, 1896 / by Joseph Frank Payne.

  • Payne, Joseph Frank, 1840-1910.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Harvey and Galen : the Harveian oration ; delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 19, 1896 / by Joseph Frank Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Few physicians or even scholars in the present day can claim to have even read through this vast collection; I certainly least of all. I can only pretend to have touched the fringe, especially of the anatomical and physiological works. Even a cursory survey, however, is enough to give a clear notion of the point to which I desire to draw special attention ; his methods of inquiry, his standard of evidence and of scientific proof. In these respects I think he will not be found wanting, even judged from a modern standpoint. Galen’s great anatomical work, De Administrationibus Anatomicis, or manual of dissections, consists of fourteen books, of which the last five are not accessible in either Greek or Latin, but exist only in a manuscript Arabic version which has not been published. Unfortunately the lost books contain part of his account of the nervous system l. His chief physiological work, De Usu Partium, might almost be called a treatise on natural theology, being intended to show the wisdom of the Creator in the adapta- tion of the parts of the body to their functions. These relations, he says, truly constitute the basis of a perfect theology, which is far greater and more to be honoured than the whole of medicine. For Galen, it may be observed, was a devout monotheist; he was evidently acquainted with part of the Old Testament, and had probably heard some echoes of Christian teaching. What he may have said in confidential moments about Jupiter and the Olympian deities we do not know. This theological bias gives a certain warp to the book, for, feeling bound to show the perfection of arrangements which he imperfectly under- stood, he was naturally led into many errors. Still, it contains a full account of the functions of all organs of 1 The last five books of this treatise are unknown either in Greek or Latin, but exist in an Arabic MS. version in the Bodleian, which has never been published. It was one q{ the objects in life of our late member, Dr. Greenhill, one of the most learned physicians in Europe, to bring out these books in a modern version. But various circumstances, and especially his fastidious standard of perfection, prevented him from completing or at least publishing his task. It is hoped, however, that his Version may some day appear.