Galen

Galen (A.D. 129–c.200), Greek physician at the court of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. His writings drew together the best of classical medicine and provided the form in which the science was transmitted in the West through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He himself contributed many original observations in anatomy and physiology, employing dissections of mammals to establish the field of comparative anatomy.

See also: Anatomy; Physiology.