什麼是加倫

Galen

拉丁語作Galenus

古羅馬醫師、作家和哲學家。出生於小亞細亞帕加馬，西元157年任角鬥士的醫生，161年到羅馬行醫，成為羅馬皇帝馬可.奧勒利烏斯（Marcus Aurelius）的朋友和康茂德（Commodus）的醫生。加倫視解剖學為基礎科學，以動物實驗為本，他辨認出七對顱神經，描述過心瓣膜，區分了動、靜脈，認為動脈中流通血液而無空氣。然而，如果把他的發現擴大到人體解剖學上就常是錯誤的。加倫根據希波克拉提斯（Hippocrates）的概念，相信有三個相連的身體系統（腦和神經司知覺和思維；心臟和動脈司生命動能；肝和靜脈司營養和成長），以及四種體液（血液、黃膽汁、黑膽汁和黏液），人體健康有賴於這四種體液的平衡。當時很少人有技能來駁倒他這種吸引人的生理學理論。加倫曾寫有三百多部作品，今僅存約一百五十部。隨著作品被人翻譯，他的影響傳至拜占庭帝國、阿拉伯和西歐。16世紀人們對解剖的興趣復燃，導致在解剖學上的一些新發現，推翻了其觀點，當時維薩里發現他在解剖學上的幾個錯誤，而哈維則重新修正了血液迴圈理論。

129～199?年

Galen

Greek physician, writer, and philosopher. Born in Pergamum, Asia Minor, he became chief physician to the gladiators in AD 157. Later, in Rome, he became a friend of Marcus Aurelius and physician to Commodus. Galen saw anatomy as fundamental and, based on animal experiments, described cranial nerves and heart valves and showed that arteries carry blood, not air. However, in extending his findings to human anatomy he was often in error. Following Hippocratic concepts (see Hippocrates), he believed in three connected body systems—brain and nerves for sensation and thought, heart and arteries for life energy, and liver and veins for nutrition and growth—and four humors (body fluids)—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—that needed to be in balance. Few had the skills to challenge his seductive physiological theory. He wrote about 300 works, of which about 150 survive. As they were translated, his influence spread to the Byzantine empire, Arabia, and then Western Europe. A revival of interest in the 16th century led to new anatomical investigations, which caused the overthrow of his ideas when Andreas Vesalius found anatomical errors and William Harvey correctly explained blood circulation.