GALEN. 53 



aqueous serum. He held that it was the office of the 

 liver to complete the process of sanguification commenced 

 in the stomach, and that during this process the yellow 

 bile was attracted by the branches of the hepatic duct 

 and gall-bladder; the black bile being attracted by the 

 spleen, and the aqueous humour by the two kidneys ; 

 while the liver itself retained the pure blood, which was 

 afterwards attracted by the heart through the vena cava, 

 by whose ramifications it was distributed to the various 

 parts of the body. 



Following Aristotle especially, he regarded hair, nails, 

 arteries, veins, cartilage, bone, ligament, membranes, 

 glands, fat, and muscle as the simplest constituents of 

 the body, formed immediately from the blood, and per- 

 fectly homogeneous in character. The organic members, 

 e.g. lungs, liver, etc., he looked upon as formed of several 

 of the foregoing simple parts. 



The osteology contained in Galen's worts is nearly 

 as perfect as that of the present day. He correctly 

 names and describes the bones and sutures of the 

 cranium ; notices the quadrilateral shape of the parietals, 

 the peculiar situation and shape of the sphenoid, and 

 the form and character of the ethmoid, malar, maxillary, 

 and nasal bones. He divides the vertebral columns 

 into cervical, dorsal, and lumbar portions. 



With regard to the nervous system, he taught that 

 the nerves of the senses are distinct from those which 



