THE FINAL SYSTEM: GALEN 



in view of its activity our predecessors were 

 obliged to call retentive." 73 



The latter part of the third book is largely- 

 devoted to an exposition of the genesis and 

 action of the four humors, which (Galen main- 

 tains) Hippocrates, Aristotle and others of the 

 ancients, correctly and sufficiently set forth. 

 He professes no one could " offer anything 

 wiser than what has been said " by them. Yet 

 even here, and still more palpably through 

 other portions of this work, and indeed through- 

 out all his writings, he does not follow Hippo- 

 crates and Aristotle as implicitly as he pro- 

 fesses. He had learned more than either of 

 them knew of the conduct of the body in health 

 and disease. Yet, had he kept closer to the 

 principles of sage Hippocrates, his writings 

 would have shown a wiser reticence, and more 

 respect for the actual boundaries of the writer's 

 knowledge. 



But Galen built his system out of his in- 

 tellectual inheritance. His treatment of the 

 old materials was affected by the mentality of 

 the second century, in which he shared. He 

 contributed personally the fruits of his own 

 acute observation and experiment, and brought 

 to bear upon the whole his extraordinary 

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