CHAPTER XV
CLAUDIUS GALEN
During the centuries immediately preceding the Christian
era, Greek medicine was represented by a collection
of treatises which had been written by Hippocrates and his
followers on anatomical, physiological, pathological, therapeutical
and ethical subjects, and which constituted a fairly
complete but not always easily intelligible system. As
time went on, however, and especially as new and useful
facts were constantly being added to the existing stock of
medical knowledge, the more thoughtful physicians began
to feel that the system, which up to that day had proved
acceptable, needed to be perfected in a number of respects;
and accordingly, as a result of this feeling of dissatisfaction,
and also as an expression of the prevailing desire
for a more perfect knowledge of the truth, there developed,
as has been stated in the preceding chapters, a number of
different medical sects. When Galen first appeared in the
field as a physician of unusual promise, these various sects
were all still in a thriving condition. The Methodists, in
particular, were very popular. Galen did not favor any
special sect, but in his writings he made it manifest that
he attached more importance to the teachings of Hippocrates
than to those of any other author. "It was Hippocrates,"
he said, "who laid the real foundations of the
science of medicine." It is therefore not surprising that
Galen should have devoted so much time to the writing of
elaborate commentaries on the works of Hippocrates. The
service which he thus rendered to medicine, says Daremberg,
was of very great value. But Galen, notwithstanding
his great admiration for Hippocrates, did not hesitate to
