On the Role of Research Travel in Medical Education in the 2nd – 3d Centuries AD

Abstract

The role of travel in obtaining medical education in Antiquity is well known from the texts of the “Hippocratic Corpus”. However, the most valuable evidence about this aspect of the medical profession can be found in the texts by Galen of Pergamum (129-210/217), whose works are the main source of this study. Galen's numerous autobiographical notes allow us not only to trace the routes of his voyages, but to uncover their goals as well. After receiving his initial medical education in Pergamum, Galen travelled to Asia Minor, particularly to Mysia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, attending lectures of famous physicians and philosophers and studying the local traditions of medicine. After that he spent some years in Alexandria. An analysis of a number of texts allows us to conclude that Alexandria in the 2-3 centuries AD was a center for the study of anatomy and commenting on Hippocrates’ texts. To study medicine in this city was considered a necessary stage in the career of a successful physician and a prerequisite for recognition in the profession. Important evidence should also be noted regarding the existing medical specialization in Alexandria, the features of the local dietetics and medicinal substances. An important stage in Galen's medical career was the theoretical and practical study of surgery at the gladiatorial school of Pergamum, where his knowledge was expanded not only with the rules for suturing, but also with hemostatic and wound healing prescriptions. From his extant works on pharmacology (“De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus”, “De compositione medicamentorum per genera”, “De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos”), we know that Galen also visited a number of places in the Eastern Mediterranean: Thrace, Macedonia, Cyprus and even Palestine. The purpose of these journeys was to observe the local climate that affects human health and causes diseases, to study the peculiar properties of the local herbs and minerals, and to collect medicinal substances for his personal apothecary. According to the evidence preserved in one of his latest works, “De indolentia”, Galen managed to collect one of the richest pharmacopoeias of his time and a unique collection of prescriptions that was destroyed by a fire in Rome in 192.