Ceratum Galeni: An old eponym honoring Galen and his cold cream

Abstract

Ceratum Galeni is an old eponym honoring the name of Galen of Pergamum (129 to cca 216 CE) and a cold cream he described more than 1,800 years ago. We traced this eponym back to the 14th and 16th centuries in published medical texts by Guy de Chauliac (ca 1300-1368) and Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). We also found a 4th-century reference in a medical work by Oribasius (ca 320-403 CE) to a mixture of wax and oil of roses based on Galen's cold cream formula. We present the images of a 19th-century apothecary white porcelain jar from Paris, France, on which appears the words Cerat Galeni, as well as a 20th-century oil painting by the American artist Robert Thom (1915-1979), which shows Galen administering his cold cream to a woman. Today, the composition of cold cream is formulated differently from Galen's original version, although the basic concept of cold cream as an oil and water emulsion remains the same. The widespread mention of Ceratum Galeni across the centuries and the popularity of cold creams today are striking examples of Galen's enormous influence on medicine as one of its founding fathers.