Erasistratus elaborated the view of the pneuma, one form of which he believed came from the inspired air, and passed to the left side of the heart and to the arteries of the body.  It was the cause of the heart-beat and the source of the innate heat of the body, and it maintained the processes of digestion and nutrition.  This was the vital spirit; the animal spirit was elaborated in the brain, chiefly in the ventricles, and sent by the nerves to all parts of the body, endowing the individual with life and perception and motion.  In this way a great division was made between the two functions of the body, and two sets of organs:  in the vascular system, the heart and arteries and abdominal organs, life was controlled by the vital spirits; on the other hand, in the nervous system were elaborated the animal spirits, controlling motion, sensation and the various special senses.  These views on the vital and animal spirits held unquestioned sway until well into the eighteenth century, and we still, in a measure, express the views of the great Alexandrian when we speak of “high” or “low” spirits.

GALEN

Pergamon has become little more than a name associated in our memory with the fulminations of St. John against the seven churches of Asia; and on hearing the chapter read, we wondered what was “Satan’s seat” and who were the “Nicolaitanes” whose doctrine he so hated.  Renewed interest has been aroused in the story of its growth and of its intellectual rivalry with Alexandria since the wonderful discoveries by German archaeologists which have enabled us actually to see this great Ionian capital, and even the “seat of Satan.”  The illustration here shown is of the famous city, in which you can see the Temple of Athena Polis on the rock, and the amphitheatre.  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