西方古代医学的巅峰:盖伦及其医学体系的建立

The Apogee of Ancient Western Medicine:Galen and His Legacy

在生物医学、免疫疗法和纳米机器人学兴起之际,当代读者通过阅读2世纪希腊医生盖伦的著作,能够从中学到什么?本文通过研究盖伦在医学和哲学领域的双重训练和学说,并考察他从在帕加马担任角斗士的医生,到在罗马担任御医的从医生涯,试图了解盖伦如何通过其著作建立起一个全面的医学体系。在近15个世纪的漫长历史中,这一医学体系是东(今中东和近东地区)西方医学领域不可撼动的权威。

At the dawn of biomedicine,immunotherapy and nanorobotics,what lessons can contemporary readers hope to learn from reading the 20,000 or so pages written by the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum in the second century AD?By focusing on Galen's dual training in medicine and philosophy,and by following him throughout his career,from Pergamum,where he was physician to the gladiators,to Rome,where he cared for the emperors,we will try to understand how the Galenic work,erected by its author as a true medical system embracing all disciplines,could reign,almost nearly fifteen centuries of medical history,in the East and in the West.