Galen: A Step Back
By the 2nd century BC, Galen, a Greek Anatomist, had been prohibited by Roman law to dissect human cadavers, therefore was confined to dissecting pigs, dogs and apes, with the belief that their anatomy was the same as humans. -Peak Research Institute Because of Galen's inability to perform dissection on human and relying upon the anatomy of animals, he made many mistakes, including believing that blood was created in the liver and that the human jawbone had two bones like that of a dog. His mistakes were accepted and used long after his death. Galen's version of anatomy was accepted with little doubt for about 10 centuries after his death. Anyone to question them and suggest that human dissection would be better than animal was ignored. Some physicians would be kicked out of medical school because their knowledge of Galenic medicine was insufficient.
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Classical Views of Disease: Hippocrates, Galen, and Humoralism, Yale Lecture
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