THE FINAL SYSTEM: GALEN 



ment of his redundant compositions; yet such 

 was his skill and genius that the monstrous bulk 

 of his writings was not for long to obscure the 

 significance of their contents. After Aristotle, 

 he was perhaps the greatest of the ancient 

 systematizers of natural knowledge. His cen- 

 tral endeavor was to make medicine into 

 a systematic science; and, for good or ill, 

 truth and error, he appears to have accom- 

 plished it. 



Medical practice and physical theory must 

 be made into a consistent unity. To this end 

 Galen sought to base the healing art upon a 

 knowledge of disease and its causes, and to set 

 his pathology upon the anatomy and physi- 

 ology of the human organism in health. This 

 more fundamental knowledge came through 

 observation under the guidance of philosophy, 

 logic and mathematics. Himself a mathema- 

 tician, he tried to apply the proofs of Euclid 

 to the results of observation and experiment. 

 He would have the a priori certitudes of the 

 understanding as well as the assurance of ex- 

 perience.^' But alas! the demands of his phi- 

 losophy distorted the perceptions of his senses. 

 Moreover, his logic was more untiring than his 

 observation. Yet when he made experiments, 



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