Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Galen: On the Natural Faculties This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Galen: On the Natural Faculties Author: Galen Translator: Arthur John Brock Release date: August 2, 2013 [eBook #43383] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language: English, Greek, Ancient Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43383 Credits: Produced by Eileen Gormly, Turgut Dincer, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALEN: ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES *** GALEN ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY ARTHUR JOHN BROCK, M.D. EDINBURGH LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS MCMXVI PREFACE The text used is (with a few unimportant modifications) that of Kühn (Vol. II), as edited by Georg Helmreich; Teubner, Leipzig, 1893. The numbers of the pages of Kühn's edition are printed at the side of the Greek text, a parallel mark (||) in the line indicating the exact point of division between Kühn's pages. Words in the English text which are enclosed in square brackets are supplementary or explanatory; practically all explanations, however, are relegated to the footnotes or introduction. In the footnotes, also, attention is drawn to words which are of particular philological interest from the point of view of modern medicine. I have made the translation directly from the Greek; where passages of special difficulty occurred, I have been able to compare my own version with Linacre's Latin translation (1523) and the French rendering of Charles Daremberg (1854-56); in this respect I am also peculiarly fortunate in having had the help of Mr. A. W. Pickard Cambridge of Balliol College, Oxford, who most kindly went through the proofs and made many valuable suggestions from the point of view of exact scholarship. My best thanks are due to the Editors for their courtesy and for the kindly interest they have taken in the work. I have also gratefully to acknowledge the receipt of much assistance and encouragement from Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, and from Dr. J. D. Comrie, first lecturer on the History of Medicine at Edinburgh University. Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson of University College, Dundee, and Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, late director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, have very kindly helped me to identify several animals and plants mentioned by Galen. I cannot conclude without expressing a word of gratitude to my former biological teachers, Professors Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. The experience reared on the foundation of their teaching has gone far to help me in interpreting the great medical biologist of Greece. I should be glad to think that the present work might help, however little, to hasten the coming reunion between the "humanities" and modern biological science; their present separation I believe to be against the best interest of both. A. J. B. 22nd Stationary Hospital, Aldershot. _March_, 1916. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v