Source edition
Galen. Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, Volume 5. Kühn, Karl Gottlob, editor. Leipzig: Knobloch, 1823.
Source data
A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a medical and physiological treatise by the ancient Roman physician Galen, exploring the function and utility of the pulse through a detailed comparison with respiration. Utilizing arterial ligation experiments and anatomical observations, Galen demonstrates that both respiration and the pulse share the common role of maintaining the body's innate heat, cooling the body through expansion, and expelling waste through contraction. He argues that arterial movement is not passive but an active contraction and expansion propagated from the heart, sharply refuting the prevailing theories of prior medical sects. Through investigations into the movement of blood and pneuma through arterial anastomoses and the active nature of both expansion and contraction, the work systematically clarifies the mechanism of the pulse. Ultimately, Galen synthesizes the similarities and differences between the pulse and respiration, providing a logical foundation for understanding vascular physiology.