Quantification in Galenic Medicine

Abstract

AbstractThe central theme of this chapter is to identify and explore various forms of quantification in the medical tradition, on which Sanctorius might possibly have drawn for his quantitative approach to physiology. First, I address theories and practices connected to dietetics and pharmacology as well as the Galenic concept of a latitude of health, which assumed a certain graduation of the state of health. Second, I reconsider the relation of Sanctorius’s work to two earlier authors who are commonly associated with Sanctorius and his static medicine: the Alexandrian physician Erasistratus (third century BCE) and the German cardinal and scholar Nicolaus Cusanus (1401–1464). Both were early proponents of quantitative approaches to medical problems. Third, I outline instances of quantitative physiological reasoning in Galen’s work as well as in the works of Renaissance scholars, and I analyze their possible connection to Sanctorius.