The 14 papers in this volume were first presented at the Fifth International Galen Colloqium held in Lille in 1995 and represent a first attempt to explore systematically this vast complicated area. The contributors cover a wide variety of themes, broadly grouped as: the epistemology, method and practice of medicine, Galen and pharmacological tradition, Galen's pharmacological treatises and the transmission of pharmacological texts.
Their papers shed a new light on this ancient therapeutic field and also help to understand Galen's pharmacology in its relation to the entire body of its work...

This volume provides a new approach to Galen's theory of respiration and to his physiological thinking. The method involves reconstructing Galen's theoretical and experimental research in the structure and context of his reasoning.
The book deals with the problem of muscular respiratory movement, the structure and function of organs such as the heart, lungs and pulmonary vessels, and the purpose of breathing. Other topics include bodily respiration (diapnoe), the explanation of asphyxia, miasmas and other pathological processes. The book ends with a study of breathing and vocal exercises...