GALEN

galen, christoph bernhard, freiherr von (1606-1678), prince bishop of munster, belonged to a noble westphalian family, and was born on the 12th of october 1606. reduced to poverty through the loss of his paternal inheritance, he took holy orders; but this did not prevent him from fighting on the side of the emperor ferdinand iii. during the concluding stages of the thirty years' war. in 1650 he succeeded ferdinand of bavaria, archbishop of cologne, as bishop of munster. after restoring some degree of peace and prosperity in his principality, galen had to contend with a formidable insurrection on the part of the citizens of munster; but at length this was crushed, and the bellicose bishop, who maintained a strong army, became an important personage in europe. in 1664 he was chosen one of the directors of the imperial army raised to fight the turk; and after the peace which followed the christian victory at st gotthard in august 1664, he aided the english king charles ii. in his war with the dutch, until the intervention of louis xiv. and frederick william i. of brandenburg compelled him to make a disadvantageous peace in 1666. when galen again attacked holland six years later he was in alliance with louis, but he soon deserted his new friend, and fought for the emperor leopold i. against france. afterwards in conjunction with brandenburg and denmark he attacked charles xi. of sweden, and conquered the duchy of bremen. he died at ahaus on the 19th of september 1678. galen showed himself anxious to reform the church, but his chief energies were directed to increasing his power and prestige. see k. tucking, _geschichte des stifts munster unter c.b. von galen_ (munster, 1865); p. corstiens, _bernard van galen, vorst-bisschop van munster_ (rotterdam, 1872); a. husing, _furstbischof c.b. von galen_ (munster, 1887); and c. brinkmann in the _english historical review_, vol. xxi. (1906). there is in the british museum a poem printed in 1666, entitled _letter to the bishop of munster containing a panegyrick of his heroick achievements in heroick verse_. galen (or galenus), claudius, called gallien by chaucer and other writers of the middle ages, the most celebrated of ancient medical writers, was born at pergamus, in mysia, about a.d. 130. his father nicon, from whom he received his early education, is described as remarkable both for excellence of natural disposition and for mental culture; his mother, on the other hand, appears to have been a second xanthippe. in 146 galen began the study of medicine, and in about his twentieth year he left pergamus for smyrna, in order to place himself under the instruction of the anatomist and physician pelops, and of the peripatetic philosopher albinus. he subsequently visited other cities, and in 158 returned from alexandria to pergamus. a few years later he went for the first time to rome. there he healed eudemus, a celebrated peripatetic philosopher, and other persons of distinction; and ere long, by his learning and unparalleled success as a physician, earned for himself the titles of "paradoxologus," the wonder-speaker, and "paradoxopoeus," the wonder-worker, thereby incurring the jealousy and envy of his fellow-practitioners. leaving rome in 168, he repaired to his native city, whence he was soon sent for to aquileia, in venetia, by the emperors lucius verus and marcus aurelius. in 170 he returned to rome with the latter, who, on departing thence to conduct the war on the danube, having with difficulty been persuaded to dispense with his personal attendance, appointed him medical guardian of his son commodus. in rome galen remained for some years, greatly extending his reputation as a physician, and writing some of his most important treatises. it would appear that he eventually betook himself to pergamus, after spending some time at the island of lemnos, where he learned the method of preparing a certain popular medicine, the "terra lemnia" or "sigillata." whether he ever revisited rome is uncertain, as also are the time and place of his death. according to suidas, he died at the age of seventy, or in the year 200, in the reign of septimius severus. if, however, we are to trust the testimony of abul-faraj, his decease took place in sicily, when he was in his eightieth year. galen was one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of his age. he composed, it is said, nearly 500 treatises on various subjects, including logic, ethics and grammar. of the published works attributed to him, 83 are recognized as genuine, 19 are of doubtful authenticity, 45 are confessedly spurious, 19 are fragments, and 15 are notes on the writings of hippocrates. galen, who in his youth was carefully trained in the stoic philosophy, was an unusually prolific writer on logic. of the numerous commentaries and original treatises, a catalogue of which is given in his work _de propriis libris_, one only has come down to us, the treatise on _fallacies in dictione_ ([greek: peri ton kata ten lexin sophismaton]). many points of logical theory, however, are discussed in his medical and scientific writings. his name is perhaps best known in the history of logic in connexion with the fourth syllogistic figure, the first distinct statement of which was ascribed to him by averroes. there is no evidence from galen's own works that he did make this addition to the doctrines of syllogism, and the remarkable passage quoted by minoides minas from a greek commentator on the _analytics_, referring the fourth figure to galen, clearly shows that the addition did not, as generally supposed, rest on a new principle, but was merely an amplification or alteration of the indirect moods of the first figure already noted by theophrastus and the earlier peripatetics. in 1844 minas published a work, avowedly from a ms. with the superscription _galenus_, entitled [greek: galenou eisagoge dialektike]. of this work, which contains no direct intimation of a fourth figure, and which in general exhibits an astonishing mixture of the aristotelian and stoic logic, prantl speaks with the bitterest contempt. he shows demonstratively that it cannot be regarded as a writing of galen's, and ascribes it to some one or other of the later greek logicians. a full summary of its contents will be found in the 1st vol. of the _geschichte der logik_ (pp. 591-610), and a notice of the logical theories of the true galen in the same work, pp. 559-577. there have been numerous issues of the whole or parts of galen's works, among the editors or illustrators of which may be mentioned jo. bapt. opizo, n. leonicenus, l. fuchs, a. lacuna, ant. musa brassavolus, aug. gadaldinus, conrad gesner, sylvius, cornarius, joannes montanus, joannes caius, thomas linacre, theodore goulston, caspar hoffman, rene chartier, haller and kuhn. of latin translations choulant mentions one in the 15th and twenty-two in the following century. the greek text was edited at venice, in 1525, 5 vols. fol.; at basel, in 1538, 5 vols. fol.; at paris, with latin version by rene chartier, in 1639, and in 1679, 13 vols. fol.; and at leipzig, in 1821-1833, by c.g. kuhn, considered to be the best, 20 vols. 8vo. an epitome in english of the works of hippocrates and galen, by j.r. coxe, was published at philadelphia in 1846. a new edition of galen's smaller works by j. marquardt, iwan muller and g. helmreich was published in three volumes at leipzig in 1884-1909. further details as to the life and an account of the anatomical and medical knowledge of galen will be found in the historical articles under the headings of anatomy and medicine. see also rene chartier's life, in his edition of galen's works; n.f.j. eloy, _dictionnaire historique de la medecine_, s.v. "galien," tom. i. (1778); f. adams's "commentary" in his _medical works of paulus aegineta_ (london and aberdeen, 1834); j. kidd, "a cursory analysis of the works of galen, so far as they relate to anatomy and physiology," _trans. provincial med. and surg. assoc._ vi., 1837, pp. 299-336; c.v. daremberg, _exposition des connaissances de galien sur l'anatomie, la physiologie et la pathologie du systeme nerveux_ (these pour le doctorat en medecine) (paris, 1841); j.r. gasquet, "the practical medicine of galen and his time," _the british and foreign medico-chirurgical rev._, vol. xi., 1867, pp. 472-488; and ilberg, "die schriften des claudius galenos," _rheinisches museum fur philologie_, 1889, 1892 and 1896.