Ancient Medicine

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Sources for the Pneumatist School

Puzzles about the Pneumatist school of medicine. Continued from here.

II. Transferring Schools

G. Galenus, De differentia pulsuum 3.2 (VIII 646K)

“For Magnus, mind you, who professes himself to come from the Pneumatist school, says the strength of the beat (of the pulse) is produced differently from the way Archigenes does.”

ὁ γάρ τοι Μάγνος, καὶ αὐτὸς ἀπὸ τῆς πνευματικῆς αἱρέσεως εἶναι προσποιούμενος, ἑτέρως τὸ ἰσχυρὸν τῆς πληγῆς γίνεσθαί φησιν ἢ ὡς Ἀρχιγένης.

H. Galenus, De differentia pulsuum 3.1 (VIII 640K)

“Magnus clearly knows that he is not arguing against the other doctors about facts, but about the proper or improper use of terms. This is made especially clear through the following example: for he asks Demetrius [the Cynic?], to whom he has dedicated these books On the Discoveries after the Time of Themison, to investigate it [sc. the pulse] with him as well, since he is a philosopher and someone who knows more precisely what is a proper term and what is not.”

οἶδεν οὖν σαφῶς ὁ Μάγνος ὅτι μὴ περὶ πράγματος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ κυρίως ὀνομάζειν, ἢ μὴ κυρίως, πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἰατροὺς ἀμφισβητεῖ. σαφέστατον δ' ἔτι ποιεῖ τοῦτο διὰ τῶν ἐφεξῆς· ἀξιοῖ γὰρ τὸν Δημήτριον, ᾧ ταῦτα τὰ βιβλία τὰ περὶ τῶν ἐφευρημένων μετὰ τοὺς Θεμίσωνος χρόνους ἀνέθηκε, συνεπισκέψασθαι καὶ αὐτὸν, ὡς ἂν φιλόσοφόν τε ὄντα καὶ τί τὸ κύριον ὄνομα καὶ τί τὸ μὴ τοιοῦτον ἀκριβέστερον εἰδότα.

I. Caelius Aurelianus, Celeres passiones, 2.10.58 (CML VI 1, 166,9-12 Bendz)

“But no one identified this disease [sc. catalepsy] as such until the time of the Methodists. For it was Magnus, from our [school, i.e., the Methodists], who first determined its characteristics, and he was soon followed by Agathinus and then by Archigenes [...].”

sed neque alius quisquam hanc passionem [sc. catalepsis] cognouit usque ad Methodicorum tempora. name ex nostris primus Magnus eius argumenta constituit, atque mox Agathinus, dehinc Archigenes [...].