Galen and the Squealing Pig

Abstract

Galen, who lived in the Roman Empire in the 2nd century, was the greatest experimental physiologist and anatomist of classical antiquity. His ideas about biology and medicine were dominant in Europe for more than 1500 years. In one of his most famous experi ments, he demonstrated loss of vocalization after section of the recurrent laryngeal nerves in the pig. This may have been the first experimental evidence that the brain controls behavior and thought. NEUROSCIENTIST 4:216-221, 1998