Epitome of the Complete Works of Galen

The same method is applied to the healing of all these as is used to cure the diseases of the Republic. For just as in this, lighter sins are punished now with chains, now with rods, now with exile, now by having the ear cut off, while for more serious crimes, the punishment is most bitter by the noose, the axe, fire, and boiling oil, so we cure minor affections of the body with certain light remedies, such as purgation, and sometimes by a simple thin diet. But the stubborn and incurable ones (such as are sphaceli gangrene and cancers) we exterminate with iron and cautery, lest they spread to healthy parts. But just as laws were invented for stabilizing the Republic and punishing criminal men, so MEDICINE was sent down to us from heaven for conserving the temperament of the body and cutting away diseases. No greater gift than this office has hitherto been given to the human race by God himself, nor (if Galen is to be believed) will one ever be given. But since Hippocrates was the first of all to hand down this very art and industry of healing, which was once based only on experience, by a method, yet he left it uncultivated and imperfect. Afterwards, Galen came along, cultivated it in many ways, and added the ultimate adornment to it. While he was received with the great applause of almost all students because of that admirable doctrine and the fertility of his language, with which he is clearly filled, yet because of the immense prolixity—