Galen on pharmacology: his scientific way of thinking and contribution to the pharmacology of Cyprus
Keywords:
Galen, Cyprus, pharmacology, ancient medicine, materia medicaAbstract
The article provides an overview of Galen’s work on pharmacology taking into account the mindset and the general attitude towards medicine in the ancient era. Pharmacology was considered one of the three fields of medical science (surgery and dietology were the other two). The ancient people used а great many natural substances of vegetable or animal origin in order to produce many kinds of drugs for healing or alleviating the pain of the human body in а natural way. The evidence of the use of this kind of medical material in the ancient literature is evident, from the epic poems, tragedies and comedies to the medical literature, especially the texts of Galen, one of the most significant ancient medical writers, pharmacologists, and researchers. Galen’s scientific way of thinking and the careful attention he paid to pharmacological concepts and methods of healing are illustrated by his observations concerning the inefficacy, errors and failure of pharmacological terms of his era. The aim of this article is to provide information about the medical material (materia medica) of Cyprus, which are found in many passages of Galen's works and try to explain the real origin of these substances. It is known that Galen had traveled to many places of the ancient world in order to explore the substances used or provided for pharmaceutical manufacturing, and one of his destinations was Cyprus. The author represents all these possible cases of the chronological determination of Galen's journey to Cyprus and the reasons for his visit which was to gather information concerning medical substances of vegetarian and animal origin and minerals (especially, copper). The research work and information about the use and utility of many minerals in pharmaceutical manufacturing were of great importance for the development of ancient Greek pharmacology.
The author points out the importance of the references to the names of many ancient Cypriot doctors in Galen’s texts for а
researcher of today in order to complete the image of ancient medicine and pharmacology.
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