GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



In other parts of his tract, Galen argues 

 vigorously against what Erasistratus and others 

 had said — and well said — as to the action 

 of the bodily organs upon mechanical prin- 

 ciples and according to the capacities of their 

 forms. Galen's vitalism carries him into many 

 a false counter-argument. His fundamental 

 view may be given mainly in his words: 



" Thus every hypothesis of channels " as 

 an explanation of natural functioning is perfect 

 nonsense. For if there were not an inborn 

 faculty given by Nature to each one of 

 the organs at the very beginning, then ani- 

 mals could not continue to live even for a 

 few days. . . . For there is not a single 

 animal which could live or endure for the 

 shortest time if, possessing within itself so 

 many different parts, it did not employ 

 faculties which were attractive of what is 

 appropriate, eliminative of what is foreign, and 

 alterative of what is destined for nutrition. 

 On the other hand, if we have these faculties, 

 we no longer need channels, little or big, rest- 

 ing on an unproven hypothesis, for explaining 

 the secretion of urine and bile, and the con- 

 ception of some favorable situation (in which 

 point alone Erasistratus shows some common 



[ii6] 



