Ancient Rome’s most notorious doctor

古羅馬最臭名昭著的醫(yī)生

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In the middle of the 16th century,

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

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

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

they also described the organs of apes and other mammals.

在 16?世紀(jì)中期，

才華橫溢的年輕解剖學(xué)家 安德烈亞斯·維薩里有了驚人發(fā)現(xiàn)：

世上最著名的人體解剖理論是錯的。

它們不僅沒有正確描述人體細節(jié)，

還把描述人的器官描寫成 猿人和其它哺乳動物的器官。

While Vesalius knew he was right,

announcing these errors would mean challenging Galen of Pergamon–

the most renowned physician ?in medical history.

But who was this towering figure?

And why did doctors working more than 1,600?years later so revere and fear him?

維薩里知道自己是正確的，

若宣布它是錯誤的話， 將意味著質(zhì)疑帕加馬的蓋倫——

醫(yī)學(xué)史上最著名的醫(yī)生。

但這位權(quán)威人物是何許人呢？

又為何 1300?年之后， 醫(yī)生們依然尊敬和懼怕他呢？

Born in 129?CE,

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

He returned home a gifted surgeon with a passion for anatomy

and a penchant for showmanship.

He gleefully entered public anatomy ?contests,

eager to show up his fellow physicians.

蓋倫生于公元前 129?年，

少年離家，前往地中海地區(qū)學(xué)醫(yī)。

回家時，已是一名 才華橫溢的外科醫(yī)生，

熱愛并喜歡表演解剖。

他積極地參加公開解剖比賽，

熱心為同行們大展身手。

In one demonstration,

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

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

When they couldn’t, he did.

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

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

to four Roman Emperors.

在一次示范中，

他阻斷了豬的一條神經(jīng)，豬就不叫了。

另一次，他把一只猴子開了膛， 并挑戰(zhàn)同行們?nèi)タp合它，

當(dāng)他們無法做到時，他卻做到了。

這些艱辛的壯舉，為他贏得了 角斗士學(xué)校的外科醫(yī)生職位。

最終，他離開了競技場，

成為四位羅馬皇帝的私人醫(yī)師。

While his peers debated symptoms and ?their origins,

Galen obsessively studied anatomy.

He was convinced that each organ had a specific function.

Since the Roman government largely ?prohibited working with human cadavers,

Galen conducted countless dissections ?of animals instead.

Even with this constraint,

his exhaustive investigations yielded ?some remarkably accurate conclusions.

蓋倫的同齡人辯論癥狀及原因時，

他則癡迷于研究解剖學(xué)，

他相信每個器官都有特殊的功能。

由于羅馬政府嚴禁解剖尸體，

所以，蓋倫大量解剖動物。

即使有這項限制，

他的大量研究依然得出了 一些非常精確的結(jié)論。

One of Galen’s most important ?contributions

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

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

By applying pressure to different ?parts of the brain,

he could link various regions ?to specific functions.

Other experiments allowed him to ?distinguish sensory from motor nerves,

establish that urine was ?made in the kidneys,

and deduce that respiration was ?controlled by muscles and nerves.

蓋倫最重要的貢獻之一

是發(fā)現(xiàn)了控制身體的 是大腦，而不是心臟。

他打開了一頭活牛的頭顱， 來證實了這一理論。

通過對大腦不同部位施壓，

他得以將不同的區(qū)域 與特定功能聯(lián)系起來。

其它實驗令他將感覺神經(jīng) 與運動神經(jīng)區(qū)分開來，

確立了尿液是由腎臟產(chǎn)生的，

并推斷出呼吸由神經(jīng)和肌肉控制。

But these wild experiments also produced ?extraordinary misconceptions.

Galen never realized that blood cycles continuously throughout the body.

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

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

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

Introduced by Hippocrates ?centuries earlier,

this misguided hypothesis attributed most medical problems

to an imbalance in four bodily fluids ?called humours.

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

like bloodletting and purging.

但是這些瘋狂的實驗 也產(chǎn)生了大量錯誤結(jié)論。

蓋倫從來沒意識到 血液循環(huán)遍及全身，

相反，他認為肝臟 產(chǎn)生源源不盡的血液，

血液在流向器官途中耗盡。

蓋倫還被認為鞏固了 “四體液學(xué)說”的流行理論，

這個誤導(dǎo)人的假設(shè)——

由希波克拉底在幾個世紀(jì)前提出，

它將大多數(shù)醫(yī)學(xué)病癥 歸因于四種體液的不平衡。

為了糾正這些液體的平衡，

醫(yī)生采用了危險療法， 例如，放血和凈化。

Informed by his poor understanding ?of the circulatory system,

Galen was a strong proponent ?of these treatments,

despite their sometimes lethal ?consequences.

Unfortunately, Galen’s ego ?drove him to believe that

all his discoveries were ?of the utmost importance.

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

meticulously cataloguing his writings ?to ensure their preservation.

由于對循環(huán)系統(tǒng)了解不足，

蓋倫大力支持這些療法，

盡管這些療法 有時帶來致命后果。

很遺憾，蓋倫的自負令他認為

他所有發(fā)現(xiàn)都很重要。

他都撰寫大量著作，涵蓋解剖學(xué)、 營養(yǎng)學(xué)，以及醫(yī)生對患者的態(tài)度，

并精心編制目錄以安全保存。

Over the next 13?centuries,

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

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

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

Even doctors who actually dissected ?human cadavers

would bafflingly repeat Galen’s mistakes,

despite seeing clear evidence ?to the contrary.

Meanwhile, the few practitioners bold ?enough to offer conflicting opinions

were either ignored or ridiculed.

在接下來的 13?個世紀(jì)里，

蓋倫的豐富著作主導(dǎo)了 所有其它醫(yī)學(xué)思想流派。

他的著作成為新一代醫(yī)生的教科書，

而后者又寫出 贊揚蓋倫理論的新文章。

即使那些解剖人類尸體的醫(yī)生，

看到了與理論相左的確鑿證據(jù)，

也莫名其妙地重復(fù)蓋倫的錯誤。

同時，為數(shù)不多的大膽行醫(yī)者 提出了與理論相左的意見，

結(jié)局是被置之不理或成為笑柄。

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

until renaissance anatomist Vesalius ?spoke out against him.

As a prominent scientist and lecturer,

his authority influenced many young ?doctors of his time.

But even then, it took another hundred years

for an accurate description ?of blood flow to emerge,

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

1300?年以來，蓋倫理論 一直神圣不可侵犯——

直到文藝復(fù)興時期 解剖學(xué)家維薩里提出反對意見。

蓋倫作為杰出的科學(xué)家和講師，

他的權(quán)威性對當(dāng)時的 許多年輕醫(yī)生影響很大。

但是即使到那時，

一百年之后才出現(xiàn)了 對血流的準(zhǔn)確描述，

之后，又過了兩百年， 四體液理論才逐漸消失。

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

without attributing equal credence ?to his less accurate ideas.

But perhaps just as valuable

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

which should always place ?evidence above ego.

希望今天我們可對蓋倫實驗

取其精華、去其槽粕。

但也許同樣有價值的是， 它提醒人們：

科學(xué)是一個不斷發(fā)展的過程，

應(yīng)始終將證據(jù)置于自我之上。