Today in class I was told of a man named Galen. I think it is time to pay this Galen a visit. In my class I was told that he had made wild accusations that humans have a system of ducts that transport blood to their brains. I have got to see why this wacko thought what he did. “Go go gadget time machine!”
So in the last
thirty minutes I have been to
Now I am aware that four and one half hours is not nearly enough time to read an encyclopedia from start to finish but it does give enough time to skim through some of the material found in Galen’s writings. I am amazed at the amount of detail he enters into with his examples of organs. While reading these texts to myself I realized that I was reading a text book. I hate it when scholarly learning infiltrates your life; it makes you feel so… smart. Anyway his texts have some abnormalities though. I realize that he is speaking of ducts in the brain of humans again. I am not a fan of this idiotic mistake. If people are reading this like a text book they are getting entirely the wrong idea of the physiology of humans. I also notice that there is a side note on Galen’s writing. Apparently there was a fire in 191 that destroyed some of his work. I guess it is time to go back and look at the originals.
Well I am looking at the original manuscripts. These contain even more detail than the ones I read last night. I am amazed that this Galen has written so much. Though there are more writings they are much of the same style. He is laying the groundwork for future generations to learn from. As I was leaving a man looked at me real oddly and started to chase me. I guess it had something to do with my clothes. I do look a little odd. There aren’t as many people here to pilfer clothes from as there were in that school a few weeks ago. Anyway I threw a jug at him and it started a small fire in the corner of the library when a lantern fell. I’m sure they put it out. I wonder how the fire that lost all so many of his manuscripts happened. Oh well I guess we will never know. Anyway I left the books I had in my backpack behind a rock when I left; I’m sure someone found them and took care of them.
I’m going to put this to a rest. I am so angry that we are so far behind in medical technology because this guy was making up body organs and systems. I am just going to set him straight. Once I find Galen I will explain to him that he has to look at one person and he will see his follies. I mean in my cadaver lab I learned so much, how can he make up things that aren’t there?
Back
to the present now. I
found Galen and he was cutting up a monkey. It was pretty
nasty.
He was writing everything down that he saw
though. At first I assumed Galen was a veterinarian
as well as a physician. I saw him
writing things though that I remembered reading about in his human
anatomy
book. This is where I got
discouraged. It seemed that he was using
a primate as a cheap excuse for a human.
I went to tell him a piece of my mind but I remembered the Adidas-like
hieroglyph
that I noticed after my last trip. To
prevent this again I never told him that he had to look at humans I
simply
suggested that he do it. He seemed so
excited that I was saying this. It seems
that he wants to work on humans but that when he tries to people are
always
acting like he is disgracing the person.
They don’t realize that he is honoring them by trying to learn from
them
to help everyone. Apparently someone
overheard us talking and as I was leaving there was a mob outside
waiting for
me. They started yelling and throwing
things at me. I overheard one person say
that he should use my body to experiment!
Anyway I think I now understand that society was responsible for
Galen’s
mistakes in the physiology of humans and that he was doing the best
that he
could. His writings have provided a base
for people to work from. In a final
note, I noticed today that next to the Adidas symbol I found a few
weeks ago
there is now a check mark that looks like a Nike swoosh. I wish I
had brought back some of those books
from that library and more importantly I wish I hadn’t left them in my
Nike
backpack with my calculus homework. If I get enough sleep tonight
I will go back and look for my things tomorrow.
Disclaimer:If you do
discover the wonders of time travel, never go back to the time of the
dinosaurs with a head cold! I did and made them sick and one
thing led to another and, well lets just say a butterfly sneezed on a
triceratops and it dropped dead like it was a boulder. I don't
get it. It was just a harmless cold.
Works
Cited:
Lee Pearcy, Galen: A
Biographical Sketch, Medicina Antiqua, http://www.medicinaantiqua.org.uk/bio_gal.html
Lindberg, Beginnings, p. #125-131 – Provides information on Galen
In this episode I used both my sources to gain background
information. The website mostly gave me information that I could
use to pinpoint times and places that Galen was working. In the
text I used the information mostly to examine his practices and what he
had to overcome to gain his knowledge. I also used previous
information we covered on Galen in this class and an essay I previously
wrote on Galen as inspiration for the essay.
Image is of a bust of Galen.
Website:Greek Scientists
Weblink:http://www.livius.org/gi-gr/greeks/scientists.html.
