membrane to contract in a manner that produces coagulation and
stops hemorrhage. It is remarkable that so simple and practical a
method as the use of the ligature in stopping hemorrhage could
have gone out of use, once it had been discovered; but during the
Middle Ages it was almost entirely lost sight of, and was not
reintroduced until the time of Ambroise Pare, in the sixteenth
century.

Even at a very early period the Romans recognized the advantage
of surgical methods on the field of battle. Each soldier was
supplied with bandages, and was probably instructed in applying
them, something in the same manner as is done now in all modern
armies. The Romans also made use of military hospitals and had
established a rude but very practical field-ambulance service.
"In every troop or bandon of two or four hundred men, eight or
ten stout fellows were deputed to ride immediately behind the
fighting-line to pick up and rescue the wounded, for which
purpose their saddles had two stirrups on the left side, while
they themselves were provided with water-flasks, and perhaps
applied temporary bandages. They were encouraged by a reward of a
piece of gold for each man they rescued. 'Noscomi' were male
nurses attached to the military hospitals, but not inscribed 'on
strength' of the legions, and were probably for the most part of
the servile class."[6]

From the time of the early Alexandrians, Herophilus and
Erasistratus, whose work we have already examined, there had been
various anatomists of some importance in the Alexandrian school,
though none quite equal to these earlier workers. The best-known
names are those of Celsus (of whom we have already spoken), who
continued the work of anatomical investigation, and Marinus, who
lived during the reign of Nero, and Rufus of Ephesus. Probably
all of these would have been better remembered by succeeding
generations had their efforts not been eclipsed by those of
Galen. This greatest of ancient anatomists was born at Pergamus
of Greek parents. His father, Nicon, was an architect and a man
of considerable ability. Until his fifteenth year the youthful
Galen was instructed at home, chiefly by his father; but after
that time he was placed under suitable teachers for instruction
in the philosophical systems in vogue at that period. Shortly
after this, however, the superstitious Nicon, following the
interpretations of a dream, decided that his son should take up
the study of medicine, and placed him under the instruction of
several learned physicians.

Galen was a tireless worker, making long tours into Asia Minor
and Palestine to improve himself in pharmacology, and studying
anatomy for some time at Alexandria. He appears to have been full
of the superstitions of the age, however, and early in his career
made an extended tour into western Asia in search of the
chimerical "jet-stone"--a stone possessing the peculiar qualities
of "burning with a bituminous odor and supposed to possess great
potency in curing such diseases as epilepsy, hysteria, and gout."

By the time he had reached his twenty-eighth year he had
perfected his education in medicine and returned to his home in
Pergamus. Even at that time he had acquired considerable fame as
a surgeon, and his fellow-citizens showed their confidence in his
ability by choosing him as surgeon to the wounded gladiators
shortly after his return to his native city. In these duties his
knowledge of anatomy aided him greatly, and he is said to have
healed certain kinds of wounds that had previously baffled the
surgeons.

In the time of Galen dissections of the human body were forbidden
by law, and he was obliged to confine himself to dissections of
the lower animals. He had the advantage, however, of the
anatomical works of Herophilus and Erasistratus, and he must have
depended upon them in perfecting his comparison between the
anatomy of men and the lower animals. It is possible that he did
make human dissections surreptitiously, but of this we have no
proof.

He was familiar with the complicated structure of the bones of
the cranium. He described the vertebrae clearly, divided them
into groups, and named them after the manner of anatomists of
to-day. He was less accurate in his description of the muscles,
although a large number of these were described by him. Like all
anatomists before the time of Harvey, he had a very erroneous
conception of the circulation, although he understood that the
heart was an organ for the propulsion of blood, and he showed
that the arteries of the living animals did not contain air
alone, as was taught by many anatomists. He knew, also, that the
heart was made up of layers of fibres that ran in certain fixed
directions--that is, longitudinal, transverse, and oblique; but
he did not recognize the heart as a muscular organ. In proof of
this he pointed out that all muscles require rest, and as the
heart did not rest it could not be composed of muscular tissue.

Many of his physiological experiments were conducted upon
scientific principles. Thus he proved that certain muscles were
under the control of definite sets of nerves by cutting these
nerves in living animals, and observing that the muscles supplied
by them were rendered useless. He pointed out also that nerves
have no power in themselves, but merely conduct impulses to and
from the brain and spinal-cord. He turned this peculiar knowledge
to account in the case of a celebrated sophist, Pausanias, who
had been under the treatment of various physicians for a numbness
in the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand. These
physicians had been treating this condition by applications of


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