122 Greek Medicine 



mediaeval figures representing the form and distribution of 

 the various anatomical ' systems ', veins, arteries, nerves, bones, 

 and muscles which are probably traceable to an Alexandrian 

 origin. 1 



Aretaeus of Cappadocia was probably a contemporary of 

 Galen (second half of the second century A. D.). As a clinical 

 author his reputation stands high, perhaps too high, his 

 descriptions of pneumonia, empyema, diabetes, and elephan- 

 tiasis having especially drawn attention. In treatment he 

 uses simple remedies, is not affected by polypharmacy, and 

 suggests many ingenious mechanical devices. It would appear 

 that Aretaeus is not an independent writer, but mainly a 

 compiler. He relies largely on Archigenes, a distinguished 

 physician contemporary with Juvenal, whose works have 

 perished save the fragments preserved in this manner by 

 Aretaeus and Aetius. Aretaeus was a very popular writer 

 among the Greeks in all ages, but he was not translated into 

 Latin, and was unknown in the West until the middle of the 

 sixteenth century. 2 He is philologically interesting as still 

 using the Ionic dialect. 



There remains the huge overshadowing figure of Galen. 

 The enormous mass of the surviving work of this man, 

 the dictator of medicine until the revival of learning and 

 beyond, tends to throw out of perspective the whole of 

 Greek medical records. The works of Galen alone form 

 about half of the mass of surviving Greek medical writings, 

 and occupy, in the standard edition, twenty-two thick, closely- 

 printed volumes. These cover every department of medicine, 

 anatomy, physiology, pathology, medical theory, therapeutics, 



1 The discovery and attribution of these figures is the work of K. Sudhoff. 

 A bibliography of his writings on the subject will be found in a ' Study in 

 Early Renaissance Anatomy ' in C. Singer's Studies in the History and 

 Method oj Science, vol. i, Oxford, 1917. 



2 First Latin edition Venice, 1552; first Greek edition Paris, 1554. 



