Galen
(c.130 - c.200 )

Galen of Pargamon was a Greek physician. He was a prolific writer, though the humoral tradition he symbolised survived only on account of Arabic translations of his texts. Galen spent four years as physician at a gladiator school, where his position gave him ample experience of trauma medicine. He advised the use of mandragora and alcohol before surgery. The combination could relieve pain; but it did not induce insensibility except at doses high enough to run the risk of killing a patient. Galen also founded a system of blood-letting, a staple of mainstream medicine that endured even after his system of humoral psychology was eclipsed.