Galaktologia terapeutyczna (γαλακτολογία ἰατρική) Galena zawarta w De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus

• Published in: Przegląd nauk historycznych 2015, Vol.14 (2), p.5-23
• Main Author: Kokoszko, Maciej
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; pol
• Subjects: Health and medicine and law
• ISSN: 1644-857X; 2450-7660
• DOI: 10.18778/1644-857X.14.02.01

The present article concerns medical galactology, i.e. the ancient knowledge of milk, galaktología iatriké (γαλακτολογία ἰατρική), and is mainly based on an analysis of select works composed by Galen. The main goal of the research was to establish sources, contents and transmission of the Pergamene’s doctrines on milk included in his De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus, and subsequently to show parallels of the narrative therein to the contents of De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos. The author of the article concludes that the analyzed material shows that Greek galactology was treated as an important branch of medical knowledge and milk played a considerable role in medical procedures (i.e. found it present in medicinal diets, was prescribed as a simple medicine, and could be included in a large number of the recipes of compound medicaments). He claims that, in the IInd, the galactological theory was already well-developed and internally cohesive (as a result there are no doctrinal differences in the output of the most important authors contributing to its creation) and therefore not questioned. As for details the researchers opines that the form of the theory developed in the time of Galen appears to be a combination of the earlier teachings of Dioscurides and Ruphus of Ephesus with the Pergamene’s own doctrine based on his practical experience. It was later passed over in an unaltered form to the later medical generations (which is easily detectable in the writings by Oribasius, Aetius of Amida and Paul of Aegina).