His Impact

Excess of Writings

Galen is known for being the most published physician of his time, in addition to being the most accomplished. Over 20,000 pages of his writing remain to date. This allowed him to remain a source of information for generations and greatly contribute to the medical field.

Areas of Coverage

Galen covered many different areas in his writings. He is known for being one of the first to use pulse for diagnosis, pictured above is his De Pulsibus. He also published works on the anatomy in his The Use of Parts. He delved into the ethical responsibilities of physicians in another work and proved that the brain was the most important organ in the body, not the heart.

Halt in Research

During his lifetime he showed great contempt for those providing erroneous information to the public concerning the human body. After his death, the amount of research being undertaken drastically declined. Most thought that Galen had the best work possible and needed no improvement. Some of his surgeries were still performed well into the 16th century! It was not until Vesalius that his mistakes were corrected and the study of human anatomy continued.

Later Scientists

While many researchers learned from the great Galen and his discovers perhaps the two most notable of these are the scientists that used Galen's research to refute and correct his theories.

Andreas Vesalius was an anatomist of the Renaissance period who undertook human dissection and chronicled his findings and Galen's mistakes.

William Harvey came a century later. He discovered the circulation of the blood through the body and noted how peculiar it was that Galen had come so close to drawing the same conclusion as him, but hadn't deduced the truth.