Its interest for us is connected with the greatest name, after Hippocrates, in Greek medicine, that of Galen, born at Pergamon A.D.130, in whom was united as never before--and indeed one may say, never since--the treble combination of observer, experimenter and philosopher.

His father, Nikon, a prosperous architect, was urged in a dream to devote his son to the profession of medicine, upon which study the lad entered in his seventeenth year under Satyrus.
In his writings, Galen gives many details of his life, mentioning the names of his teachers, and many incidents in his Wanderjahre, during which he studied at the best medical schools, including Alexandria.
Returning to his native city he was put in charge of the gladiators, whose wounds he said he treated with wine.

In the year 162, he paid his first visit to Rome, the scene of his greatest labors.

Here he gave public lectures on anatomy, and became "the fashion." He mentions many of his successes; one of them is the well-worn story told also of Erasistratus and Stratonice, but Galen's story is worth telling, and it is figured as a miniature in the manuscripts of his works.

Called to see a lady he found her suffering from general malaise without any fever or increased action of the pulse.