The Complete Works of Claudius Galen, Vol. 8

BOOK 4

Edition by Chartier, Volume VII. [383.] Edition of Basel, Volume III. (250, 251.)

...whether one should say that the neck of the bladder is affected due to an obstructing stone or a blood clot, or if the part itself remains unaffected while its function is damaged. These are the questions Archigenes Archigenes of Apamea was a prominent physician of the Eclectic school in the late 1st century. Galen frequently critiques his detailed but sometimes pedantic classifications. investigates, though they are superfluous to the medical art.

Others, however, go even further than these points. They claim that the function is not even damaged. They argue that the action of urinating still occurs: the muscle that constricts the neck of the bladder relaxes, the bladder itself contracts around the urine contained within it, and the abdominal muscles apply pressure at the same time.

When the bladder maintains its own function without harm and the will prepares the muscles to act as it desires—stretching the upper muscles while relaxing the one surrounding the neck—how, they ask, could anyone rightly suspect that the function has been damaged?

Consequently, these thinkers are forced to say that the condition of ischuria original: "ἰσχουρίας" / "ischuriae". This refers to the inability to pass urine. occurs not because urination is damaged, but because it is hindered. It is as if they were providing some great help to the medical art by simply changing the word from "damaged" to "hindered." Such inquiries, as I have said, are merely logical exercises. They train the reasoning mind, but they do not lead to the...