2010-02-10 14:58:00
Galen of Pergamum (129-200 AD), was a genius doctor who considered the body as a great map whose details were yet to be discovered “Like those who describe the nature of a country by first showing its borders and then continuing by enumerating its parts, in the same way, I also want to begin by describing and delimiting the borders of the thorax.“, He said. He was convinced that there was only one way to understand the world of hidden knowledge inside a body: opening and looking.
Throughout his life he carried out innumerable dissections of animals, dead and alive. Most of them were done in private, learning every detail he observed, trying to understand the function of every organ, muscle, or nerve. That background provided him with enormous skill in the field of surgery and a powerful weapon with which to beat his opponents in multitudes of public medical demonstrations.
One of the first, and most famous, interventions of the young Galen took place in his hometown, Pergamum. Sponsored by the high priest of the imperial cult, a doctor’s position had been created to care for the gladiators who participated in the bloody shows of the Roman circus. Several candidates applied, and to get the position, Galen tried something truly audacious. In a public meeting, in the presence of the high priest and the chief physician of the city, he ripped open a live monkey, carefully removed its viscera, and challenged the other physicians to put the viscera back in place and sew up. the poor animal (of course, the challenge was to keep it alive). No one dared, so he did it himself. Not content with that demonstration, he took an even more difficult step, deliberately severing several of the ape’s veins and challenging the medics present to stop the bleeding. The animal bled to death quickly so, faced with the inaction of his colleagues, he skillfully carried out the job that he had proposed to his rivals. This is how Galen became a gladiator doctor.
The experience treating the wounds of the fighters, allowed him to demonstrate his skills in many other circumstances. On one occasion, while traveling with a friend, he was confronted with a violent situation. At one point during the trip, Galen’s companion discovered that his servants had lost part of the luggage. Seized with an irrepressible rage, he took out a huge knife and began to unleash blows on the heads of the poor slaves. Blood began to gush and the attacker, appalled at what he had just done, hurried away, leaving the wounded and Galen behind.
The doctor did not take long to take control of the situation, stopped the bleeding, sewed up the wounds and carried out the first dressings with great skill. The next day, Galen met the assailant again and, before the astonished eyes of the doctor, undressed, put a leash in his hands, and knelt before him, asking him to flog him for his bad character. Galen limited himself to giving him a reprimand and he left laughing.
Galen’s fondness for public demonstrations to unmask the errors of his colleagues made a deep impression on his disciples. Galen himself recounts in one of his books how a group of students confronted a charlatan doctor who had gained some fame by saying that he could demonstrate that the aorta artery, the great pathway that leaves the heart, did not contain blood, but air.
Galen’s students prepared various animals for a live dissection, in public view, and challenged the doctor to prove what he stood for. The opponent replied that he would not do it unless he was paid for it. The youths collected 1,000 drachmas and placed them in the middle of the audience that had gathered to watch the show. The rival tried to get out of the situation with misleading words but was forced by those present to act. Encouraged by a group of adepts, the doctor mustered all the courage he could and approached the first animal, plunged the scalpel into the thorax and hit the bone, to the laughter of those present. One of the doctor’s followers tried it too, but severed an artery and the poor animal soon bled to death. The public, accustomed to the bloody spectacles of the circus and encouraged by the followers of Galen, broke into abundant laughter.
After taunting the contender and his acolytes, Galen’s students went into action. Accustomed to live dissections and with all the knowledge that their teacher had communicated to them, they chose another animal, masterfully opened the ribcage and, without damaging anything else, tied the aorta at two different points so as to retain between them what carried. When the animal died, they opened the artery and it was left showing that it was full of blood and not air, as the fake doctor had defended.
Ref: The Performance Dimension of Galen’s Anatomy Demonstrations. Maud W. Gleason. Stanford University.
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