34 
PATHOLOGY. 
nions. If is true they fometimes found blood in the ar¬ 
teries, and in the left cavities of the heart ; but then they 
believed that the air or fpirit had efcaped, and that the 
blood had oozed through the fides of thefe air-veflels, and 
fupplied its place. Galen refuted this opinion by expe¬ 
riment. He laid bare one of thefe vetfels in a living ani¬ 
mal, and by tying it in two places, and opening it between 
the ligatures, he afcertained that it contained blood and 
nothing elfe. He therefore concluded, that both veins 
and arteries ferved the fame purpofe-, that of diftributing 
blood for the fupply of the body, but that the florid ar¬ 
terial blood contained more air than the purple blood of 
the veins. We need hardly remark, that Galen did not 
underhand the natural courfe of the blood, though he 
had thus made known its containing vefl'els. 
Galen did not apply himfelf much to the furgical de¬ 
partment of the art : however, he occafionally performed 
the operation of arteriotomy, and opened the jugular 
veins ; and he defcribed with accuracy the different kinds 
of hernia. 
In a hiftory of this kind it feems right to mention the 
effect of anatomical ftudies on the mind of Galen. After 
contemplating the ftrufture of the bones of a fkeleton, 
and their "adaptation to their different fundiions, he 
breaks out into an apoftrophe, which has been much ad¬ 
mired, and in which he isfaid to have exceeded any an¬ 
cient in pointing out the nature, attributes, and proper 
worfhip, of the Deity. “In explaining thefe things,” he 
fays, “I efteem myfelf as compoiing a folemn hymn to 
the author of our bodily frame ; and in this I think 
there is more true piety than in facrificing to him heca¬ 
tombs of oxen, or burnt-offerings of the moft coftly per¬ 
fumes : for I firffc endeavour to know him myfelf, and af¬ 
terwards to (how him to others, to inform them how 
great is his wifdom, his virtue, his goodnefs.” 
Medicine improved very flowly after the time of Galen ; 
his fucceflors were more employed in compiling and com¬ 
menting on the works of their predeceflors, than in en¬ 
deavouring to extend the bounds of fcience by original 
obfervation. Among the moft diftinguilhed of thefe we 
may record the names of Oribaftus, Aetius, Alexander 
Trallian, and PaulusAEgineta. 
Oribafius flourifhed about the year 360, and was phy- 
ffcian to the emperor Julian. Though commonly rec¬ 
koned a Sardian, he was born at Pergamus, and bred up, 
together with Magnus and Ionicus, in the ichool of Zeno 
the Cyprian, who taught then at Sardis, though after¬ 
wards he removed to Alexandria, where he became a 
famous profeflbr. Eunapius reprefents Oribafius as the 
greateft fcholar and phyfician of his time, and a very en¬ 
gaging and agreeable man in converfation. He defcribes 
him as no lefs confiderable in his intereft than in his 
learning : according to his account, he contributed very 
much to the advancement of Julian to the empire, who 
in return made him quasftor-of Conftantinople, and who, 
as appears by one of his letters, had an entire confidence 
in him. Ip. the fucceeding emperor’s time, through the 
envy of his enemies, he fell into difgrace, had all his ef- 
tates confifcated, was banifhed, and delivered into the 
hands of barbarians ; amongft whom, in a little time, by 
his courage and flcill, he gained fo much love and'reve¬ 
rence, that they, feeing what great cures he performed, 
adored him as a god. At laft he was recalled by the Ro¬ 
man emperor, and flourithed in reputation and riches at 
the very time when Eunapius wrote this account, which 
muft be near the year 400. 
Oribafius wrote feventy (according to Photius) or (ac¬ 
cording to Suidas) feventy-two books of colledtions, 
which he compiled not only from Galen, but from all 
the preceding phyficians, and his own experience, at the 
defire of Julian; the fifteen firft of which are only remain¬ 
ing, and two others treating of anatomy, Afterwards he 
made an epitome of this great work, and reduced it into 
nine books for the ufe of his fon, Eullathius. Paulus 
mentions this epitome ; but it is now loft, as are fome 
other tradfs which Suidas takes notice of. Thefe works, 
though chiefly compilations, are, by no means without 
their ufe to the medical ftudent ; for both Oribafius and 
Aetius have preferved fome fragments of antiquity, and 
thofe of fome value, which are no-where elfe to be met 
with ; that is, they compiled from the now-loft-vvorks of 
Galen and others, and added much original matter of 
their own. We will give only one inftance of what is 
either omitted by Galen, or is loft together with fome 
other of Galen’s works; namely, the firft defeription of 
the lalivary glands, which is this : “ On each fide of the 
tongue, iie the orifices of the vefl'els, which difehargethe 
fpittle, and into which you may put a probe. Thefe vef- 
fels take their rile from the root of the tongue, where the 
glands are fituated. They rife from thefe glands, in 
much fuch a manner as arteries ufually do, and convey 
the falivary liquor, which moiftens the tongue, and all 
the adjacent parts of the mouth.” Oribafius, lib. xxiv. 
c. 8. 
Oribafius, either from Apollonius or himfelf, fpeaks 
very fully of the good eftedts of bleeding by way of fca- 
rification, a thing little taken notice of by former writers : 
and allures us, from his own experience, how fuccefsful 
he had found it in a fupprelfion of the menfes, defluxions 
of the eyes, headache, lfraitnefs of breathing, even when 
theperfon was extremely old. He tells his own cafe par¬ 
ticularly, when the plague raged in Afia, and he himfelf 
was taken ill, that the fecond day he fcarified his leg, and 
took away two pounds of blood; by which method he en¬ 
tirely recovered, as did feveral others who ufed it. Here 
we may obferve, that this was a different method of fca- 
rifying from that performed by the help of cupping. 
The Arabian phyficians feem to have'had a notion only of 
the latter practice : but, from this place, as well as from 
fome pafiages of Galen, it is plain, that the ancients made 
deep incifions into the Ikin by the knife; and therefore 
thought, by the large quantity of blood they could draw 
off, that this method was equivalent to opening.a vein. 
The Egyptians make ufe of it to this very day; and 
Profper Alpinus defcribes at large the apparatus: they 
make, firft a ftrait ligature under the ham, then rub the 
leg, and put it into warm water, and beat it with reeds 
to make it fwell, and fo fcarify. A procefs in every par¬ 
ticular differing from cupping ; and therefore, in the cure 
of giddinefs, Oribafius himfelf fpeaks of them as two 
diftindt operations. 
We find in this author the firft account of a ftrange and 
lurprifing diftemper Avy.a.vfya'rrix, a fpecies of melancholy 
and madnefs, which he defcribes thus : “The perfons af 
fedied go out of their houfes in the night-time, and in 
every thing imitate wolves, and wander among the fepul- 
chresofthe dead till day-break. You may know them 
by thefe fymptoms: their looks are pale; their eyes 
heavy, hollow, dry, without the leaft moifture of a tear : 
their tongue exceedingly parched and dry : no fpittle in 
the mouth, extreme thirft ; their leg', from the falls and 
bruifes they receive, full of incurable fores and ulcers.” 
Aetius gives the very fame defeription, with fome little 
variation ; only calls it K.v'jxvitjco'mx as well as Av/.xv^^ani 
and obferves it prevails moft in February. Aetius takes 
this paflage, as he fays, that is, makes a paraphrafe of it, 
from Marcellus Sidetes, an author who lived under 
Adrian and M. Antoninus; and who wrote forty-two 
books concerning diftempers, in heroic verfe. Paulus 
has tranforibed the fame account of this difeafe word for 
word. The Greek term ufed to denote this difeafe ex- 
prefles the nature of it veryjuftly; and yet Vanderlindenis 
fo carelefs a writer, that lie makes it a fynonymous term 
for the madnefs of the wolves themfelves. We conceive 
the difeafe to have been a fpecies of mania, in which the 
aflociation of the mind with deceafed relatives produced 
an inclination to wander among the tombs. 
Of the epilepfy, Oribafius defcribes the cure both in 
the acute and the chronical fort; that is, in the fit as well 
as out of it. When the litis over, he orders bleeding; 
and. 
