The squealing pig demonstration of Galen is one of the most famous single physiological demonstrations of all time that even Leonardo da Vinci was inspired to produce a beautiful drawing of the recurrent laryngeal nerves (Gross, 1997). According to Gross (1998), it was Galen’s squealing pig demonstration that brought the first experimental and publicly repeatable evidence that the brain controls behavior. In his time, Galen even made lengthy arguments against Stoic philosophers, implying in Galenic writings that brain is the organ of thought. Before this famous demonstration of his, the brain was only recognized with little importance since it is based only from indirect references from anatomy. This only presents us with how Galen deals with
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He was the one who described in detail the sympathetic nerve trunks and the course of the nine, if not ten, cranial nerves. (Gross, 1966). He was the first to differentiate sensory nerves from motor nerves basing from their source in the brain. He also made accurate descriptions on the brain’s gross anatomy, particularly that of the ventricles and cerebral circulation. However, these were only results from animal origin (Smith, 1971). Even then, the effect of Galen’s results has brought an unchangeable impact in the world of medicine for the next 15 centuries even after his death until the birth of Renaissance. Galenism prevailed until the Middle Ages where medieval people preferred to accept his views as fixed and unchangeable in all fields of medicine. When Galen died, classical medicine science and medicine died with him. Instead of developing his ideas and contesting his methods, the pursuit for refining his research was frozen in time wherein the growth of biology led to a sterile phase (Gross, 1998). It would only take the Renaissance to bring back medicine and change the way things were as Galen have
He was the one who described in detail the sympathetic nerve trunks and the course of the nine, if not ten, cranial nerves. (Gross, 1966). He was the first to differentiate sensory nerves from motor nerves basing from their source in the brain. He also made accurate descriptions on the brain’s gross anatomy, particularly that of the ventricles and cerebral circulation. However, these were only results from animal origin (Smith, 1971). Even then, the effect of Galen’s results has brought an unchangeable impact in the world of medicine for the next 15 centuries even after his death until the birth of Renaissance. Galenism prevailed until the Middle Ages where medieval people preferred to accept his views as fixed and unchangeable in all fields of medicine. When Galen died, classical medicine science and medicine died with him. Instead of developing his ideas and contesting his methods, the pursuit for refining his research was frozen in time wherein the growth of biology led to a sterile phase (Gross, 1998). It would only take the Renaissance to bring back medicine and change the way things were as Galen have