Ancient Rome’s most notorious doctor - Ramon Glazov

翻译人员: Carol Wang 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

In the middle of the 16th century,

在 16 世纪中期，

a talented young anatomist named Andreas Vesalius made a shocking discovery:

才华横溢的年轻解剖学家 安德烈亚斯·维萨里有了惊人发现：

the most famous human anatomy texts in the world were wrong.

世上最著名的人体解剖理论是错的。

They not only failed to account for many details of the human body,

它们不仅没有正确描述人体细节，

they also described the organs of apes and other mammals.

还把描述人的器官描写成 猿人和其它哺乳动物的器官。

While Vesalius knew he was right,

维萨里知道自己是正确的，

announcing these errors would mean challenging Galen of Pergamon–

若宣布它是错误的话， 将意味着质疑帕加马的盖伦——

the most renowned physician in medical history.

医学史上最著名的医生。

But who was this towering figure?

但这位权威人物是何许人呢？

And why did doctors working more than 1,300 years later so revere and fear him?

又为何 1300 年之后， 医生们依然尊敬和惧怕他呢？

Born in 129 CE,

盖伦生于公元前 129 年，

Galen left home as a teen to scour the Mediterranean for medical wisdom.

少年离家，前往地中海地区学医。

He returned home a gifted surgeon with a passion for anatomy

回家时，已是一名 才华横溢的外科医生，

热爱并喜欢表演解剖。

and a penchant for showmanship.

He gleefully entered public anatomy contests,

他积极地参加公开解剖比赛，

eager to show up his fellow physicians.

热心为同行们大展身手。

In one demonstration,

在一次示范中，

he caused a pig to lose its voice by tying off one of its nerves.

他阻断了猪的一条神经，猪就不叫了。

In another, he disemboweled a monkey and challenged his colleagues to repair it.

另一次，他把一只猴子开了膛， 并挑战同行们去缝合它，

When they couldn’t, he did.

当他们无法做到时，他却做到了。

These grizzly feats won him a position as surgeon to the city’s gladiators.

这些艰辛的壮举，为他赢得了 角斗士学校的外科医生职位。

Eventually, he would leave the arena to become the personal physician

最终，他离开了竞技场，

成为四位罗马皇帝的私人医师。

to four Roman Emperors.

While his peers debated symptoms and their origins,

盖伦的同龄人辩论症状及原因时，

Galen obsessively studied anatomy.

他则痴迷于研究解剖学，

He was convinced that each organ had a specific function.

他相信每个器官都有特殊的功能。

Since the Roman government largely prohibited working with human cadavers,

由于罗马政府严禁解剖尸体，

Galen conducted countless dissections of animals instead.

所以，盖伦大量解剖动物。

Even with this constraint,

即使有这项限制，

his exhaustive investigations yielded some remarkably accurate conclusions.

他的大量研究依然得出了 一些非常精确的结论。

One of Galen’s most important contributions

盖伦最重要的贡献之一

was the insight that the brain, not the heart, controlled the body.

是发现了控制身体的 是大脑，而不是心脏。

He confirmed this theory by opening the cranium of a living cow.

他打开了一头活牛的头颅， 来证实了这一理论。

By applying pressure to different parts of the brain,

通过对大脑不同部位施压，

he could link various regions to specific functions.

他得以将不同的区域 与特定功能联系起来。

Other experiments allowed him to distinguish sensory from motor nerves,

其它实验令他将感觉神经 与运动神经区分开来，

establish that urine was made in the kidneys,

确立了尿液是由肾脏产生的，

and deduce that respiration was controlled by muscles and nerves.

并推断出呼吸由神经和肌肉控制。

But these wild experiments also produced extraordinary misconceptions.

但是这些疯狂的实验 也产生了大量错误结论。

Galen never realized that blood cycles continuously throughout the body.

盖伦从来没意识到 血液循环遍及全身，

Instead, he believed the liver constantly produces an endless supply of blood,

相反，他认为肝脏 产生源源不尽的血液，

which gets entirely depleted on its one-way trip to the organs.

血液在流向器官途中耗尽。

Galen is also credited with solidifying the popular theory of the Four Humours.

盖伦还被认为巩固了 “四体液学说”的流行理论，

Introduced by Hippocrates centuries earlier,

这个误导人的假设——

由希波克拉底在几个世纪前提出，

this misguided hypothesis attributed most medical problems

它将大多数医学病症 归因于四种体液的不平衡。

to an imbalance in four bodily fluids called humours.

To correct the balance of these fluids, doctors employed dangerous treatments

为了纠正这些液体的平衡，

医生采用了危险疗法， 例如，放血和净化。

like bloodletting and purging.

Informed by his poor understanding of the circulatory system,

由于对循环系统了解不足，

Galen was a strong proponent of these treatments,

盖伦大力支持这些疗法，

despite their sometimes lethal consequences.

尽管这些疗法 有时带来致命后果。

Unfortunately, Galen’s ego drove him to believe that

很遗憾，盖伦的自负令他认为

all his discoveries were of the utmost importance.

他所有发现都很重要。

He penned treatises on everything from anatomy to nutrition to bedside manner,

他都撰写大量著作，涵盖解剖学、 营养学，以及医生对患者的态度，

meticulously cataloguing his writings to ensure their preservation.

并精心编制目录以安全保存。

Over the next 13 centuries,

在接下来的 13 个世纪里，

Galen’s prolific collection dominated all other schools of medical thought.

盖伦的丰富著作主导了 所有其它医学思想流派。

His texts became the standard works taught to new generations of doctors,

他的著作成为新一代医生的教科书，

who in turn, wrote new essays extolling Galen’s ideas.

而后者又写出 赞扬盖伦理论的新文章。

Even doctors who actually dissected human cadavers

即使那些解剖人类尸体的医生，

would bafflingly repeat Galen’s mistakes,

看到了与理论相左的确凿证据，

despite seeing clear evidence to the contrary.

也莫名其妙地重复盖伦的错误。

Meanwhile, the few practitioners bold enough to offer conflicting opinions

同时，为数不多的大胆行医者 提出了与理论相左的意见，

were either ignored or ridiculed.

结局是被置之不理或成为笑柄。

For 1,300 years, Galen’s legacy remained untouchable–

1300 年以来，盖伦理论 一直神圣不可侵犯——

until renaissance anatomist Vesalius spoke out against him.

直到文艺复兴时期 解剖学家维萨里提出反对意见。

As a prominent scientist and lecturer,

盖伦作为杰出的科学家和讲师，

his authority influenced many young doctors of his time.

他的权威性对当时的 许多年轻医生影响很大。

But even then, it took another hundred years

但是即使到那时，

一百年之后才出现了 对血流的准确描述，

for an accurate description of blood flow to emerge,

and two hundred more for the theory of the Four Humours to fade.

之后，又过了两百年， 四体液理论才逐渐消失。

Hopefully, today we can reap the benefits of Galen’s experiments

希望今天我们可对盖伦实验

without attributing equal credence to his less accurate ideas.

取其精华、去其槽粕。

But perhaps just as valuable

但也许同样有价值的是， 它提醒人们：

is the reminder that science is an ever-evolving process,

科学是一个不断发展的过程，

which should always place evidence above ego.

应始终将证据置于自我之上。