Galen's Concept of Continuity De Lacy, Phillip H Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1979; 20, 4; Periodicals Archive Online pg. 355

Galen's Concept of Continuity 

Phillip H. De Lacy 

I N DISCUSSING the arrangement of the parts of the body, their in­
ternal cohesion and attachments to each other, the activities and 
powers that they possess or transmit, and the damage caused by 

destruction of their unity or union, Galen employs the concept of 
continuity, CVVEXELl.X. 1 He gives special prominence to this concept in 

1 This paper is based on a fairly extensive, but by no means complete, search of Galenic 
texts. Works that survive only in Latin or Arabic translation were used only in those cases 
where the concept of continuity is clearly present. One such passage, Anat. 10 p.49.15-l6 
Simon, was identified by J. Kollesch, CMG Suppl. V p.79. The following abbreviations 
are used in references to Galen's works: 
An in art.: An in arteriis natura sanguis contineatur: Kuhn IV 
Anat.: De anatomicis administrationibus: Kuhn II, Simon II 
CC: De causis contentivis: CMG Suppl.Orient. II 
CMG: Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 
Const. AM: De constitutione artis medicae: KUhn I 
CP: De causis pulsuum: Kuhn IX 
DF: De differentiisfebrium: Kuhn VII 
HELMREICH: G. Helmreich, ed. De usupartium, 2 vols. (BT, Leipzig 1907-09) 
II: De inaequali intemperie: Kuhn VII 
In Epid. I comm.: In Hippocratis Epidemiarum librum primum commentarii: CMG V 10.1 
In Epid. III comm.: In Hipp. Epid. librum tertium commentarii: CMG V 10.2.1 
In Epid. VI comm.: In Hipp. Epid. lib rum sextum commentarii: CMG V 10.2.2 
In Fract. comm.: In Hippocratis lib rum de fracturis commentarii: Kuhn XVIII B 
In NH comm.: In Hippocratis de natura hominis librum commentarii: CMG V 9.1 
In OM comm.: In Hippocratis lib rum de officina medici commentarii: Kuhn XVIII B 
In Progn. comm.: In Hippocratis Prognostieum eommentarii: CMG V 9.2 
In Prorrhet. comm.: In Hippoeratis Prorrhetieum eommentarii: CMG V 9.2 
In VA eomm.: In Hippocratis de vietu acutorum librum eommentarii: CMG V 9.1 
10: De instrumento odoratus: CMG Sup pI. V 
lui.: Adversus ea quae Iuliano in Hippoeratis Aphorismos enuntiata sunt: CMG V 10.3 
K: Kuhn, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia. 
LA: De locis affeetis: Kuhn VIII 
MC: De morborum causis: Kuhn VII 
MD: De morborum differentiis: Kuhn VI 
MM: Methodus medendi: Kuhn X 
Mot.muse.: De motu museulorum: Kuhn IV 
NF: De naturalibusfacultatibus: Kuhn II 
Part.hom.diJf.: De partium homoeomerium differentia: CMG Suppl.Orient. III 
PD: De pulsuum differentia: Kuhn VIII 
PHP: De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis: CMG V 4.1.2, Kuhn V 

355 



356 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

his classification of diseases. The two most comprehensive classes are 
8vcKpacla, faulty mixture of the active qualities (hot, cold, wet, 
dry), and cvv€x€lac AVCLC, dissolution of continuity.2 The latter is his 
own designation for a class that includes wounds, ulcers, fractures, 
corrosion of tissues, and the like, for which his predecessors had no 
common name.3 He sometimes varies the phrase, substituting 
£vwC€wc for cvv€x€lac, and 8talp€CLC or 8tacfo8opa for '\VCLC; 4 and some­
times he uses several of these terms in combination. 5 Yet cvv€x€lac 

Plenit.: De plenitudine: KUhn VII 
Ptis.: De ptisana: CMG V 4.2 
SC: De symptomatum causis: KUhn VII 
Sem.: De semine: Kuhn IV 
SWON: M. Simon, Anatomie des Galen (Leipzig 1906) vol. II 
SM: De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis acfacultatibus: Kuhn XI-XII 
ST: De sanitate tuenda: CMG V 4.2 
Tum.: De tumoribus praeter naturam: Kuhn VII 
UPart.: De usu partium: KUhn III-IV, Helmreich 
UPuls.: De usu pulsuum: Kuhn V 
References are to CMG wherever possible. For the rest, Kuhn's pagination is used for the 
works that are in Kuhn, as it is always entered in the margins of subsequent editions. 

2 See for example MM 13.1, X 874.1-4 K. These two classes overlap. A faulty mixture 
of qualities, especially immoderate heat or cold, can destroy continuity. A chill in one 
part, for example, may cause a contraction which pulls that part away from those with 
which it is continuous: SM 4.2, XI 622.3-5, 623.1,5-6,7-8,625.1-6,626.1-2; II 6, VII 
744.17-745.6 K. The classification of diseases that Galen gives in MM 2.6, X 125.13-126.5 
K, is more elaborate: (1) faulty mixture, a disease ofhomoeomerous parts; (2) four kinds 
of diseases of organs; (3) dissolution of continuity, a form of disease common to homoe­
omerous parts and to organs. There is a somewhat similar scheme in Const. AM 5, I 237.15-
238.11 K. The closest pre-Galenic approach that I have found to a generalized concept 
of interruption or blockage as a cause of disease is Philistion's view that when the flow 
of pneuma throughout the body is unimpeded, the body is healthy, and when the pneuma 
does not flow freely, diseases arise. See Anon.Lond. col. xx 43-50. 

3 See MC 11, VII 37-40 K. Lists of disorders that fall under this general heading are 
given also in CC 9, p.I40.29-37; Const. AM 5, I 238-39 K; II 3, VII 739.17-18 K; LA 
2.5, VIII 80-81 K; MD 11, VI 872 K; MM 3.1,4.1,6.1, X 160, 232-33, 385 K. 

4 €VWC£C replaces cvv£xwx at Const. AM 13, I 269.12 K; In Fract. comm. 2.16, XVIII B 
446.8 K; MD 4, 11, VI 847.15, 871.4-5 K; SC 1.2.3, VII 94.5-7, 103.12 K; and restora­
tion of €VWCIC is given as the aim of treatment at In Fract. comm. 1.1, XVIII B 330.3-4 K, 
and MM 3.1,10, X 160.3-4,7-8, 228.12 K. '\vc£c or '\vw may be replaced by a7To'\'\vfli 
(MD 12, VI 874.3-4 K), {3M.7T'TW (Const. AM 5, I 239.17 K), ola{pwc or oialpEiv (MC 
I,ll, VII 2.2-3, 37.16,39.2-5 K; MD 12, VI 873.11 K; MM 6.1, X 385.9 K; SC 1.6, 
VII 117.2 K), ola.pOop& or ola.pOelpw (In Fract. comm. 1.1, XVIII B 330.2 K; In VA comm. 

2.1, p.164.2). cvv£x£{ac '\vc£c is replaced by ~YKOC in the classification given in LA 5.7, 
VIII 345.12-18 K. 

6 There is a piling up of terms at Const. AM 5, I 238.9-11 K; MC 11, VII 37.10-16 K; 
MM 5.2,6.1,5,7.2, X 309.12-13,384.8,423.16-17,459.7 K; SC 1.6, VII 117.13-14 K. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 357 

"uete emerges as the name peculiar to this class of disorders, and as 
such it survives in Nemesius.6 

Under this general heading are many different kinds of continuity. 
Here again Galen's division is dyadic: continuity is a property both 
of homoeomerous parts, such as bone and membrane,7 and of the 
organs formed from homoeomerous parts. 8 Galen sometimes speaks 
of a homoeomerous part as being "continuous with itself," CVVEXEC 

€(xV'TfiJ.9 Indeed, being continuous with itself appears to be a criterion 
of such a part; in one place Galen says that no compound body is 
homoeomerous, since the whole of it is not continuous with itself.10 
Homoeomerous parts can be divided into segments that differ in 

6 For further examples of cvv£x£lac "VCLC see In OM camm. 3.1, XVIII B 820.13 K; 
MM 3.2, X 162.7 K; and for c. "v£c(Ja" Il3, VII 739.12 K; In VA camm. 2.1, p.163.22; 
MD 11, VI 871.11 K; MM 6.5, 14.16, X 426.10-11, 1002.2 K; Scm. 1.4, IV 527.8 K. The 
passage in Nemesius is De natura hominis 1, p.51.5-6 Matthaei. 

7 Galen gives a short list of homoeomerous structures subject to dissolution of con­
tinuity in Canst. AM 5, I 238.12-239.6 K. He mentions the continuity of certain homoe­
omerous structures in other passages also, of arteries in An in art. 4, IV 717.2 K, and MM 
13.22, X 941.15 K; of bone in UPart. 3.9, III 214.1-3 K, MM6.5, X 426.10-11 K, and 
In Fract. comm. 1.1, XVIII B 330.2 K; of the mesenterion in In Epid. VI comm. 4.7, 
p.197.6-8, 12-13; of the membrane around the fetus in Sem. 1.6, IV 534.14-15 K; of the 
inner sheath that extends from the oral cavity through the esophagus to the stomach in 
UPart. 4.8, 7.3, III 282.11-13, 520.6-8 K, In Prorrhet. comm. 1.30, p.43.11, and /0 2.6 
and 3.2, pp.38.5 and 40.13. See also the passages cited infra n.9; and for continuity in 
the substance of the tongue see n.12. Galen gives lists of homoeomerous structures in 
Il2, VII 735.6-12 K and in Part.hom.diff. 3.7, p.59.6-17 and 9.6, pp.83.22-85.1 ; but the 
lists show discrepancies. In his use of the term homoeomerous Galen follows Aristotle 
(with modifications) rather than Anaxagoras, except possibly in such passages as SM 
3.16, XI 584.4-10 K, where he speaks of perhaps a thousand invisible homoeomerous 
bodies in a ladle of juice, and SM 4.3, XI 628.4-5 K, where he says that it is impossible, 
or at least very difficult, to find a substance (e.g. wine) that is completely homoeomerous. 

8 This dyadic division of continuity is mentioned in Const. AM 5, I 238.11-239.11 K; 
MD 11, VI 871.4-14 K; MM 2.6, X 125.19-126.1 K; SC 1.2, VII 87.3-6, 94.5-6 K. 

9 Clear examples are the inner sheath of the esophagus (In Progn. comm. 3.35, p.361.4-5), 
the semen in the uterus and the membrane that forms around it (Sem. 1.4, IV 523.4, 
526.10 K), and the skin (LA 3.11, VIII 196.15-16 K). Muscles (LA 5.7, VIII 350.5-6 K) 
are also "continuous with themselves," though according to Part.ham.diff. 3.7, p.59.9-1O, 
it is the fibres in the muscles that are homoeomerous. 

10 PHP 6.2, p.372.11-13, V 519.3-5 K. The text has been emended by the trans­
position of a negative. Writers other than Galen did not use the phrase in so restricted a 
sense. Erasistratus apparently used it of the pneuma in the arteries, with the meaning 
that if part of the pneuma escapes the rest will follow; if. An in art. 2,3,4, IV 708.9-13, 
710.5-12, 716.15 K. Galen reports also that for Aristotle and the Stoics water is con­
tinuous with itself in that it contains no void: In Epid. VI comm. 4.11, p.215.11. This 
appears to be a Parmenidean use of the term CVV£X€c; see infra n.106. Plutarch describes 
the body as continuous with itself when it is awake: Quaest.conviv. 4.2.4, Mor. 666A. 



358 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

size but not in kind, and the divisions cannot be numbered.ll The 
continuity of a homoeomerous part may be destroyed by the cutting 
of a nerve or blood vessel, the breaking of a bone, the growth of a 
tumor, or any of the disorders that Galen includes under the name 
€AKOC (hereafter translated 'sore' for lack of a better term). 

Continuity in the organs takes several forms. The tongue as organ 
of taste has the continuity of its homoeomerous substance. This con­
tinuity may be dissolved, with resultant pain, by a sharp or bitter 
taste. 12 (The dissolution of continuity, though not always painful, is 
nevertheless one of the two principal causes of pain.) 13 The arteries 
are continuous with each other and with the heart.14 When an 
artery is severed, the continuity extends only as far as the cut. 15 The 
veins are similarly continuous with the liver/ 6 and the nerves and 
spinal cord with the brain.17 The forearm is a continuous whole 
before its unity is destroyed by a fracture. 18 A muscle that divides 
into fingers, as it were, is not continuous at the divided end; 19 and 
similarly the lungs, being divided into lobes, are not wholly 
continuous.2o 

Continuous parts may be contiguous or may be joined by an inter­
mediary. Muscle is continuous with bone.21 An outer muscle in 
the leg is continuous with an inner muscle.22 The three bones of the 
tarsus are continuous with the scaphoid bone.23 The tendon at the 

11 See MD 8, VI 867.14-868.2 K; PHP 6.2, p.372.13-14, V 519.6-7 K; and on the 
infinite divisibility of continuous magnitudes, infra n.121. 

12 SC 1.6, VII 116.18-117.2 K. The tongue appears in the list of homoeomerous 
structures in Part.hom.diff. 7.11, p. 77 .20-23, even though it is a sense organ (if. Const. AM 
2, I 232.4 K). Presumably as an organ it is non-homoeomerous, yet its flesh is homoeo­
merous. There are examples of other such organs in Part.hom.dijJ. 7.1-3, pp.73.21-75.7. 
Similarly, the skin is called homoeomerous (see supra n.9) yet is an organ of touch. 

13 Const. AM 7, I 249.8-11 K; II 3, VII 739.9-18 K; In Fract. eomm. 3.34, XVIII B 
586.5-8 K; In VA eomm. 2.1, p.163.22; LA 2.5, VIII 80.12-17 K. 

14 UPuls. 5, V 164.18-165.1 K; UPart. 6.7, III 436.10-12 K; if. 6.14, III 479.16 K. 
15 PHP 2.6.10, p.150.9-11; 6.3.3, p.372.25-27, V 520.4--6 K. 
16 Cj. UPart. 4.13, III 301.8 (as corrected by Helmreich, vol. I p.221) and 10 K. See 

also p.360 infra. 
17 Const. AM 3, I 234.11-12 K; UPart. 8.12, III 671.14-15, 672.1-2 K; Mot.muse. 1.1, 

IV 369.13-14; 371.6-7 K; MM6.3, X 403.7-8 K; PHP 7.5.9, p.454.21-23, V 620.1-3 K. 
18 In Fract. eomm. 1.51, XVIII B 410.10-13 K. 
19 Anat. 5.3, II 493.14-15 K. 
20 UPart. 7.10, III 550.13-14 K. 
21 Mot.muse. 1.9, IV 414.11, 417.15-16 K. 
22 UPart. 3.16, III 258.9 K. 
23 UPart. 3.8, III 201.5~ K. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 359 

sternum is continuous with the rectus muscle at the epigastrium.24 

The upper part of the stomach is continuous with the esophagus, 
and the lower part is continuous with the upper part.25 The penis is 
continuous with the neck of the bladder. 26 Continuity implies close­
ness also in Galen's refutation of the Stoic argument that speech does 
not come from the brain. Galen says that one of the Stoic premises 
should have been: "All that is sent through a thing is sent out of the 
parts continuous with that thing"; and another premise should have 
been: "The brain is not continuous with the windpipe." 27 

But continuous parts are not always contiguous. The brain is 
continuous with the heart through the carotid arteries.28 The kidneys 
are continuous with the colon through the peritoneum.29 The 
uterus is continuous with the breasts through the blood vessels; 30 
and there are bonds that fasten a bronchial tube to the parts con­
tinuous with it. 31 Nor does contiguity entail continuity. The arteries 
that ascend from the groin lie close to the arteries that descend from 
the sternum, but their continuity is through the great artery, just as 
leaves on different branches of a tree may be spatially close but 
remote in their continuity, which is through the trunk.32 

The use of CVVEXEC to characterize closely related parts of the body 
is not original with Galen. It appears in a passage that Galen quotes 
from Diocles,33 and it may even go back to Diogenes of Apollonia. 34 
Artistotle in his biological works uses CVVEXEC, much as Galen does, 
of parts of the body that combine to form systems. He says in one 
passage that the continuity of bones with the spine and of blood 

24 Anat. 5.3, II 496.17-18 K. 
25 LA 6.2, VIII 381.5-7 K. 
26 Sem. 1.5, IV 566.15 K. 
27 Cj. PHP 2.5, pp.142.22-24; 142.34-144.1; 144.10-11, 25-28; 146.10-13, 16-17. 

Galen does not always name the continuous parts to which he refers. He speaks, for 
example, of "injuries to the heel and the continuous parts," In Fract. comm. 2.18, XVIII 
B 449.6-7 K, and the violent passage of a humor through continuous parts as it is 
evacuated, LA 1.2, VIII 24.7-8 K. The arteries on expanding draw in TO CVV€X€C, An in 
art. 7, IV 730.17-18 K. A pair of nerves spreads through the mouth of the stomach and 
the parts continuous with it, UPart. 4.7, III 277.8 K. Cj. also MC 7, VII 30.15 K. 

28 UPuls. 2, V 156.8-9 (if. 154.6-7) K. 
29 In Epid. VI comm. 1.6, p.24.20-21. 
30 MM 13.19, X 925.13-926.1 K. 
31 LA 1.1, VIII 3.1-2 K. 
32 An in art. 5, IV 719.2-4 K. 
33 LA 3.10, VIII 187.13 K. 
34 Cj. the use of CVV€Xw in fro B 6 Diels-Kranz=Arist. Hist.An. r 2, 512a27. 



360 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

vessels with the heart is a necessary condition of their performing 
their proper functions. 35 Elsewhere Aristotle makes a sharper 
distinction than Galen does between continuity and attachment,36 
and he ties continuity more closely to oneness of movement. Thus he 
gives arm and leg as examples of continuous things that are spoken 
of as one, but then goes on to say that shin or thigh is a better 
example than leg. 37 

It is abundantly clear that there is for Galen, as for Aristotle, a 
close relation between the body's continuities and its activities and 
powers. The powers may proceed by identifiable routes or may pass 
through tissues. Galen uses the phrase KaTCx TO CVVEX€C, 'step by step', 
to characterize the course of the air as it passes from nostrils to the 
trachea or the brain,38 the stages in the distribution of nutriment to 
all parts of the body,39 and the successive emptying and filling of 
parts in the dissipation of the body's substance from the inner' 
organs through the skin into the surrounding air: the parts are 
emptied and refilled "one after another, as in a kind of dance" 

" ,~, - 40 
KaTa TO CVVEXEC WC EV XOP<t1 TLVL. 

Especially important for Galen is the availability of continuous 
routes for the transmission of quality and power without an accom­
panying transmission of substance. The power of pulsation flows 
constantly into the tunics of the arteries from the body of the heart, 
with which the tunics are continuous.41 The power "called natural 
and nutritive" flows from the liver to the veins,42 and in the veins 
there is "continuity of transference."43 A proof that the liver is the 
source of this power is that there is no other organ with which all 
veins are continuous. 44 

35 Arist. Part.An. 2.9, 654a32-bI7. 
36 Metaph. I I, 1052aI9-20; K 12, 1069a5-8. 
37 Metaph. LI 6, 1016a2-3, 9-12. For other Aristotelian uses ofthe concept of continuity 

see infra nn.104 and 120. 
38/0 3.11,4.2, p.44.6, 27. 
39 PHP 6.8.19, p.4IO.36, V 568.10 K. Cj. [Arist.] De spiritu 3, 482a35, where it is denied 

that inspired breath is distributed KaTa cvvlX€lav to the whole body. 
40 SC 1.7, VII 129.4 K. Bandaging, also, may be KaT a T6 cvv€Xlc (cJ. In Fract. camm. 

3.15, XVIII B 556.3 K) ; and the chain of pieces of iron hanging from a magnet is KaTa 

T6 cvvEXIc (NF 1.14, II 48 K). 
41 PHP 7.5.12, p.456.3-4, V 620.18-621.2 K. 
42 In Epid. VI comm. 1.3, p.18.12-13. 
43 UPu/s. 2, V 157.13-14 K. See also p.364 infra. 
44 PHP 6.8.5, p.408.17-20, V 564.15-565.1 K. See also 6.5.19,28, pp.390.35-392.1, 

392.35-394.3, V 542.16-543.5, 545.10-16 K. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 361 

In the nerves the situation is more complex. The optic nerves are 
hollow and contain psychic pneuma. 45 This pneuma proceeds from 
the brain to and through the eyes.46 When it strikes the outer air it 
assimilates the air to itself by means of a flow of qualitative change 
throughout the air, which is a continuum. Galen compares this 
flow to the flow of the sun's light and heat. The resultant continuum 
of pneuma and air becomes the instrument for vision. 47 

The majority of nerves, however, which transmit the power of 
sensation and motion from the brain to all parts of the body,48 are 
not hollow. They carry these powers through their inner core, which 
consists of compressed brain tissue and is surrounded by protective 
coats similar to the meninges.49 A proof that these nerves have in 
them a flow of power or qualitative change rather than of substance 
is the fact that transmission from brain to toe is instantaneous; no 
substance, not even pneuma, could make its way so quickly through 
such narrow, tortuous and fragile conduits.50 The power carried by 
a nerve extends beyond the nerve itself to what is continuous with 
it. Thus the nerve to the liver, without penetrating the whole of 
that organ, makes it faintly sensitive. 51 Galen tells us, incidentally, 
that "flow of power" and "flow of qualitative change" are simply 
two ways of referring to the same phenomenon. 52 

The flow is initiated by action of the brain's pneuma on the con­
tinuum. This was the case with vision, when the pneuma struck the 
outside air. Galen asks why it is that the spinal cord also is hollow 
for some distance from the brain and suggests as an answer that this 
hollow permits the pneuma to strike the solid portion with a stronger 
blow than would be possible if the spinal cord were entirely solid.53 

The dissolution of the body's continuities is, as was said, one of 
the two main classes of diseases. But these same continuities, when 
unbroken, may themselves contribute to the spread of disorders. 

45 PHP 7.4.4, p.448.25-29, V 612.14-613.2 K. 
46 PHP 7.4.11-13, p.450.1O-22, V 614.4-18 K. 
47 PHP 7.5.5-10, p.454.8-27, V 619.2-620.8 K. 
48 PHP 7.1.4, p.428.19-21, V 587.13-16 K. 
49 PHP 7.3.5; 5.13, pp.440.15-19; 456.5-11, V 602.3-8; 621.2-11 K; Anat. 10, p.34 

Simon. 
50 PHP 7.4.20-21, p.452.8-15, V 616.10-617.1 K. Matter mostly needs a wide road: 

UPart. 6.17, III 499.14-17 K. 
51 UPart. 4.13, III 310.15-311.4 K. 
52 PHP 7.4.2, p.448.14-16, V 612.2-4 K. 
53 PHP 7.4.23, p.452.17-22, V 617.4-11 K; if. 7.4.3, p.448.22-24, V 612.12-14 K. 



362 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

Galen found explanations of this kind in his predecessors. He quotes 
a passage from Erasistratus in which it is said of a gathering of pus 
that it constantly fills the continuous places: 1TATJpoV/LEVWV SE a€t TWV 

CVV€XWV T01TWV; 54 and he reports that his teacher Pelops used the 
concept of continuity to explain how a diseased leg could affect the 
head: the cause is either a qualitative change or a substance of the 
nature of pneuma that spreads through the parts KaTa TO CVV€XEC. 

If poison lodges in a nerve-like part, it could send its power KaTa TO 
CVV€XEC to the beginning of the nerves. A scorpion's sting can 
penetrate the skin and strike a nerve or artery or vein; but even a 
shallow bite on the surface of the skin may be transmitted by the 
skin itself to the whole body, since the skin is continuous with itself 
and nerve-like. 55 Where Pelops ends and Galen begins in this 
passage is not clear. Galen apparently accepts Pelops' explanation. 
Elsewhere, however, he gives rather different explanations of the 
way in which poisons reach the heart. 56 

Galen utilizes in still other contexts the concept of continuity to 
explain the spread of pathological states in the body. Tension, for 
instance, can arise in a part from an affection either of the part itself 
or of parts continuous with it. 57 When veins containing menstrual 
blood become swollen, their tension may spread to the bonds 
adjoining them and from these KaTa TO CVJl€XEC to the uterus. 58 
Gangrene attacks Ta CVJl€xfj, and herpes, the creeping disease, gets 
its name from the way it attacks TO CVJl€XEC TOU SEp/LaToc. 59 In one of 
Galen's cases the part of the pericardium that is continuous with the 
sternum mortified as a consequence of a wound in the sternum.60 

The body's reaction to a disorder may also involve continuity: 
vomiting is explained by the sheath within the esophagus that is 
continuous with itself from stomach to mouth.61 The healing of a 
break is of course a restoration of continuity.62 

Continuity also explains some forms, at least, of sympathetic dis-

54 LA 5.3, VIII 318.12-13 K. 
55 LA 3.11, VIII 194.18-197.4 K. At 196.15-16 I would read cvv£X£c TE yap aimp. 
56 SM 3.18, XI 596.7-598.5 K, and infra n.I 16. 
57 In Epid. VI comm. 1.30, p.58.2-7. 
58 LA 6.5, VIII 429. I 7--430.2 K. 
59 Tum. 8, 9, VII 720.17-18, 723.4-5 K. 
60 PHP 1.5.1, p.74.3-5. 
61 In Progn. comm. 3.35, p.361.4-IO; see also supra n.7. 
62 MM 3.10, X 228.12 K; see also supra n.4. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 363 

orders. Though I have not found in Galen a generalized statement of 
the relation between the two, in certain specific cases he conjoins 
sympathy and continuity. Among the signs of an affection of the 
colon he lists deterioration of appetite and digestion, "since the 
stomach through the sharing of continuity suffers sympathetically 
with the part that is affected primarily." 63 Again, tension may arise 
by sympathy alone (that is, without an excess of blood) when the 
parts continuous with inflamed parts are drawn tight. 64 A third 
passage has to do with the ear and the brain: pain in the visible ear 
is not dangerous, as the visible ear has no sovereign power and is not 
continuous with any sovereign part; but pain in the depth of the ear 
arises from an affection of the auditory nerve, which is attached to 
the brain at no great distance. It is reasonable, then, that many who 
suffer pain in the depth of the ear die, since the brain comes into 
sympathy with it.65 

I t is not surprising to find Galen using his concept of continuity 
and his classification of diseases as aids in the interpretation of 
Hippocrates. Galen found the term CVV€X~C used in Hippocratic 
texts with reference to time, as in the phrase, 1TVP€TOC CVV€X~C, 

continuous fever,66 and 1Tcxt..fLoC CVV€X~C, continuous throbbing.67 

Rain, also, may be continuous and soft.68 Galen himself characterizes 
the sequence of signs and symptoms in a Hippocratic case history as 
occurring KCXTeX TO CVV€Xec.69 But Galen's sophisticated view of the 
manifold continuities in the body's structure and activity is, as far 
as I know, absent from the Hippocratic writings. Yet Galen assumes 
its presence. For example, a rather challenging problem for Galen 
was to make sense of the passage in Hipp. De Fract. 31 (vol. III 
p.526.9-10 Littre) which says, " ... unless a person should say that 
other diseases too are sores (lAK€CX). For this statement also has a 

63 LA 2.5, VIII 84.16-17 K. 
64 In VA comm. 2.10, p.169.16-18. There is another example of tension by continuity 

and without swelling in In Epid. I comm. 3.19, p.132.l7-19, but in that passage there is no 
mention of sympathy. 

65 In Progn. comm. 3.1S, p.346.11-16. 
66 Galen mentions continuous fever in many places. See for example In Epid. I comm. 

1.24, pp.37.18-38.32; 3.2, 3, 10, pp.lll.l-114.2; 120.23-121.29; In Epid. III comm. 3.66, 
pp.147-4S. 

67 See Gal. In Epid. I comm. 3.19, pp.131.12, 132.10. 
68 See Gal. In Epid. I comm. 1.2, p.24.1,1O,19. 
69 In Epid. I comm. 3.19, p.131.14-16; if. also In VA comm. 4.110, p.358.9-1O. 



364 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

certain reasonableness." In Galenic terms the question raised here 
is whether diseases of the class marked by faulty mixture of the 
qualities may also be said to be diseases of the class marked by 
dissolution of continuity, since sores belong to the latter class. Galen 
argues that although such a statement would be false, it is neverthe­
less plausible. (He takes E'TTt€tKHa to be equivalent to 7TLBaJlo'T"f}c; he is 
rather fond of the antithesis "plausible, but not true."70) He explains 
its plausibility by pointing out that a sudden change to faulty mix­
ture, when caused by excessive heating or chilling, is accompanied 
by a painful dissolution of continuity, or, in other words, a sore. But 
from this it does not follow that all instances of faulty mixture are 
instances of sores. 71 

Galen uses the concept of continuity also in interpreting the 
Hippocratic statement that "the whole body breathes together and 
flows together with itself." 72 The context in Galen is that if the 
arteries are ligated so that the blood cannot transmit heat, the heat 
will nevertheless be transmitted by the walls of the arteries, and if 
even these cannot transmit it, other parts will, especially the veins, 
"through the continuity of transference."73 

I shall not attempt to list and classify all the other uses, in Galen 
and elsewhere, of CVJI€X1}c, CVJlEX€La and related terms. A few, however, 
deserve to be mentioned, as possibly relevant to Galen's concept of 
the continuities that unify the body and underlie its activities. In 
Galen himself one finds CVJI€X1}c used of the unifying theme of a 
treatise or the unifying thread of an argument. Sometimes, to be sure, 
the term refers only to what comes next, with no necessary impli­
cation of coherence. In his commentaries, for instance, Galen may 
make a transition by announcing that he will now proceed to 'TO 

CVJI€XEc.74 At other times, however, the emphasis is on the unity or 
coherence of a verbal sequence, whether a sentence, a discussion or 
a whole treatise. In one place Galen obtains the continuity of a 

70 See for example UPart. 6.20, III 505.15-16 K; SM 2.5, XI 471.13-14 K; PHP 
l.l0.1O, p.98.12. 

71 In Fract. comm. 3.34, XVIII B 585.15-587.12 K; II 6, VII 744.17-745.6 K. 
72 UPu/s. 2, V 157.10--12 K. I do not know the Hippocratic source. 
73 See supra n.43. 
74 In VA comm. 4.40, p.311.16; In NH comm. 3.16, p.101.23; In Progn. comm. 2.63, 

p.315.17; In Epid. III comm. 3.33, p.131.7; In Epid. VI comm. 3.32, p.174.1. Compare PI. 
Soph. 261El, 262cl, where it is pointed out that not every sequence (cvv€X€ta) of words 
has a meaning or forms a sentence. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 365 

Hippocratic text by transposing a clause; 75 in another he rearranges 
a Hippocratean passage to produce an order in which one sentence 
is CVJ)EX~C KIX~ aKo>'ovOOc, continuous with and consequent on, the 
preceding sentence ;76 and in still another he gives the continuity of a 
Hippocratic passage through paraphrase.77 He reports that Dios­
curides gave continuity to a Hippocratic sentence by recasting it; 78 
and of yet another passage he says that some commentators linked it 
to the passage immediately preceding, while others "split it off from 
continuity with the preceding statement."79 Within his own treatises 
he sometimes postpones the discussion of an item in order not to 
interrupt 'TOV >.6yov 'TO CVJJEX€c,80 

The participle CVJJEX0J) is also used of the unifying element in 
treatises. In his commentary on Epidemics VI Galen speaks of "that 
which most of all holds the entire account together."81 In De locis 
affectis he uses a very similar phrase with reference to a work of 
Erasistratus.82 His own early work, De elementis secundum Hippocratem, 
presented 'TeX CVJ)EXOJ)'TIX 7TaJ)'TIX of the Hippocratic De natura hominis but 
did not include a sentence-by-sentence commentary.83 Chrysippus' 
treatises De anima and De affectibus both failed to give adequate 
attention to 'TO cvJ)€xoJ), that which holds (or should hold) a treatise 
together.84 

Even tighter, one would assume, is the continuity in the sequence 
of propositions that comprise a demonstration. In one of his com­
mentaries Galen recasts a Hippocratean sentence into a demonstra­
tion (a7To8€LgLC) consisting of three propositions, which he introduces 

75 In Epid. I comm. 1.19, p.36.2-3. 
76 In VA comm. 2.32, p.190.28-29. 
77 In Epid. VI comm. 2.20, pp.82.27-83.6. 
78 In Epid. VI comm. 3.13, p.142.11. 
79 a7roCXlcavr€c am) rfjc rwv 7rpoHpTjp.ivwv CVV€Xdac, In Epid. VI comm. 4.11, p.211.11. 

Cf, also In Prorrhet. comm. 3.6, p.113.16, where Galen gives ro CVV€XEC rfjc Mt€wc that 
results from changing a word. 

80 Sem. 1.7, IV 536.5 K; if. MM 5.7; 10.5, X 335.17; 685.2 K; LA 1.1, VIII 13.11-12 
K; UPart. 4.17, III 329.2-3 K. To this usage may be compared Epicurus' reference to 
the continuous circuit of the whole of his philosophy, rife CVV€xove rwv o'\wv 7r€pLOO€Lae, 
Epist. ad Herod. 36. 

81 ro eVVEXov p.a'\Lera rov o'\OV '\oyov, In Epid. VI comm. 2.46, p.118.23-24. 
82 LA 5.3, VIII 320.10 K: auro p.aALera ro evvixov oAov aurov rov '\oyov. 
83 Cf, In NH comm. 1 proem, p.3.12-14; PHP 8.2.13, p.492.28-29, V 664.17 K. There is 

a similar use of CVVEXOV in Philod. De pietate p.86.33 Gomperz. 
84 PHP 3.8.26-28, pp.228.30-32, 230.1,6; 4.6.13-14, 7.20-21, pp.272.25-30, 

284.24-28. 



366 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

. th th d" l' , 'A' (\ I t:. l' (\ I WI e wor s WCTE ELJJaL TO CVJJEXEC TTJC a1TOOELSEWC WOE 1TWC 1TEpaL-

VOJ-tEVOV, "SO that the continuity of the demonstration arrives at its 
conclusion pretty much in the following way."85 

Galen employs also the Stoic concept of a continuing cause, atTLov 

CVVEKTLKOV or atTia CVVEKTLK7J, modifying it to conform to his own view 
of being and becoming. A continuing cause is coeval with its effect; 
while it is present, the effect remains, and when it ceases, the effect 
ceases.86 As Galen states it, the Stoics held that everything that exists 
must have a continuing cause; but this, Galen argues, leads to an 
infinite regress. 87 His own view is that only those things that have 
their being in becoming require continuing causes.88 The continuity 
here is not only in the persistence in time of a condition capable of 
producing a given effect but also the persistence of the power of that 
condition to produce that effect. Galen employs a continuing cause 
from time to time in his treatises ;89 he uses it in his exegesis of 
Hippocrates; 90 and he accuses Julianus of misusing it. 91 

A distinction should be made, I think, between temporal con­
tinuity and spatial continuity. In its temporal aspect CVVEX7JC may 
be used either of uninterrupted happenings or of frequently repeated 
happenings. Examples of the latter include continual sexual in­
dulgence, which drains the semen more continuously from the body,92 
the continuous eliminations that characterize some pathological 
states,93 the continuous movement of the organs of respiration 94 and 
the heart,95 continuous use of a medicament,96 continuous moistening 
of a bandage,97 continuous visits of the physician,98 and indeed the 

85 In Progn. comm. 1.2, p.198.11-12. 
86 Cf, Chrysippus, fr.phys. 351, SVF II, p.121.25-28. 
87 Cf. Plenit. 3, VII 525.10-528.17 K, where criticism of the Stoics is incidental to 

criticism of the Herophileans. 
88 CC 8.2, p.138.l9-25; Synopsis librorum suorum de pulsibus 9, IX 458.15-459.5 K. 
89 E.g. SC 1.2,5,7, VII 93.2-4, 109.7-9, 132.7 K; CP l.l; 4.1,7, IX 2.1-3.20; 156.3, 

165.7 K. 
90 Cf, In NH comm. 2.1, p.58.16-21. 
91 lui. 6.1-13,8.19-22, pp.52.17-58.6, 69.4-70.10. 
92 Sem. 1.16, IV 586.7,587.5 K. 
93 SC 3.5, VII 238.7, 239.2 K; if. UPart. 4.18; 5.16, III 332.12-15, 333.3-4, 334.3; 

405.9 K. 
94 In VA comm. 1.31, p.149.27; if. UPuls. I, V 152.17-153.1 K. 
95 PHP 6.8.33, p.414.20, V 572.2-3 K; UPart. 6.8, III 438.5 K. 
96 MM 5.10, X 357.6 K. 
97 In Fract. comm. 1.21, XVIII B 366.13-15 K. 
98 In Fract. comm. 1.21, XVIII B 367.9-10 K. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 367 

continuous dripping of water that wears away the rock.99 All these 
happenings are interrupted by short pauses. It is less clear whether 
Galen would permit pauses in such temporal events as the continuous 
growth of a plant 100 or an embryo 101 or the continuous flow from 
kidney to bladder 102 or the continuous nourishment of psychic 
pneuma.103 A clear example of uninterrupted continuity in time 
would be for Galen the circular movement of the heavens; but I 
have not yet found in him that application of the term.104 Nor have 
I found the statement that time itself is continuous. 

Spatial continuity, however, is uninterrupted.105 It is possible that 
this was what Parmenides meant, or at least part of what he meant, 
when he said that the all that is one is CVVExec.106 Gorgias, in seeming 
disagreement, argued that if what is is one, and the one is a con­
tinuous magnitude, then it is not one, for it can be CUt. 107 For the 
atomists, on the other hand, bodies are not continuous because they 
contain void; 108 and Galen reports that Aristotle and the Stoics, 

99SM 3.18, XI 597.13-14 K. 
100 PHP 6.3.12, p.376.6, V 523.8-9 K. 
101 Sem. 1.6, IV 535.8 K. The phrase CVV€XTJC aiJ~7]CtC was used by Aristotle, Gen.An. 

2.6, 745a35, in a counterfactual about the teeth: "Even if they had continual growth 
(for 10,000 years) ... " 

102 SC 3.8, VII 251.11 K. 
103 UPuis. 2, V 154.14-15 K. 
104 Cj. Arist. Phys. 8.8, 264b9. On the importance of the concept of continuity in 

Aristotle's doctrine of movement see especially the discussion in F. Solmsen, Aristotle's 
System cif the Physical World (Ithaca [N.Y.] 1960) 187-204. In the Nicomachean Ethics 
Aristotle describes as continuous the activity in accordance with virtue and the accom­
panying pleasure, pointing out that continuity of activity cannot be achieved in human 
affairs, but that this activity is more continuous than any other; see Eth.Nic. 1.10, 
1100b16; 10.4, 1175a3-5; 10.7, 1177aI9-22. For Epicurus time has minimal continuous 
spans (Ad Herod. 62); and Epicurus speaks of the temporal continuity of a life (Main 
Tenets, 16), the continuous movement of atoms (Ad Herod. 43), the continuous flow of 
atoms from the surface of bodies (Ad Herod. 48), and the continuous motion of small bits 
of earth that cause earthquakes (Ad Pyth. 105). Echoing Aristotle, he says that the 
philosophic life is CVVEX€c JV£PY7JlW Jv c/>vcwAoyl'f (Ad Herod. 37) and speaks of continuous 
pleasures, ~8ovac CVV€XEIC (fr.116 Usener). 

105 An exception is Democritus' view that the Milky Way is made up of many small 
continuous (CVV€xwv) stars: fro A 91 D-K. Leucippus also, according to Diog.Laer. 9.32, 
spoke of continuous bodies flowing together. 

106 Parmenides, fro B 8, line 6 D-K; if. line 25. For a discussion see M. C. Stokes, One 
and Many in Presocratic Philosophy (Cambridge [Mass.] 1971) 134-35. The view that the 
cosmos is one and continuous is attributed to Philolaus by Stobaeus; see Philolaus, fro 
B 21 D-K. 

107 Gorgias, fro B 3 D-K=Sext.Empir. Adv.Math. 7.73. 
108 Leucippus, fro A 19 D-K=Arist. Phys. 4.6, 213a31-bl. 



368 GALEN'S CONCEPT OF CONTINUITY 

rejecting the atomists' view, held that water, at least, does not 
contain void and is continuous.109 

Galen himself avoids these theoretical controversies, but he finds 
continuity on the visual level in such substances as air,l1O vapor,l11 a 
black cloud,112 resinous frankincense,113 honey,114 even barley gruel. 
Continuous barley gruel was already in Hippocrates' repertory of 
medicaments. 115 

Another feature of spatial continuity, as compared to temporal, is 
that it is not necessarily linear. In his physiology Galen for the most 
part thought of continuity as linear. He had trouble explaining the 
spread through the body of secondary sexual characteristics, poisons 
and their antidotes, and the powers of strong foods; and here he had 
to resort to some kind of general diffusion.116 In his theory of vision, 
where the surrounding air is the medium, he needed an indefinitely 
large number of straight lines reaching from eye to visual objects.117 

But in general he made the continuities as specific as possible. This 
brought him into conflict with the Stoics. For Chrysippus the soul is 
a continuous pneuma that pervades the whole body.l1S Being in 
direct communication with every part, it doesn't need to send 
messages through passageways.119 Galen thought that his experi­
ments refuted this view, but he had great difficulty persuading the 
Stoics that he was right. 

It remains a question whether Galen recognized the spread 
between opposite poles as a continuum. Aristotle in the Nicomachean 
Ethics had used the term CVV€X~C of the range between the vices of 

109 Cf. Gal. In Epid. VI comm. 4.11, p.215.3-11. In the same vein Galen, SM 4.2, XI 
623.5-6 K, remarks that empty space is not permissible in continuous bodies so long as 
their continuity is preserved. 

110 Cj. In Epid. VI comm. 4.11, p.215.3; PD 3.6, VIII 673.2 K; PHP 7.5.7, p.454.l5, 
V 619.11 K. Air was cvv£X~c also for the Stoics: Diels, Dox.Graec. p.409.9. 

III DF 2.12, VII 378.16 K. 
112 In Epid. VI comm. 4.20, p.230.1; if. also 230.5 and Arist. Mete. 2.9, 3.1,3, 369bl-3, 

370b30-31, 372b22-24. 
113 MM 5.4, X 322.10 K. 
114 ST 4.5, p.119.18,20. 
115 Cj. Gal. Ptis. 5, pp. 458.14; 459.7,18; 460.21. 
116 Cf. Sem. l.l6, IV 584.1-585.5 K. 
117 Cj. PHP 7.5.40, p.460.2S-26, V 627.1 K. Galen recognized also that sound spreads 

by waves; UPart. 8.6, III 644.13 K. 
118 Chrysippus, fr.phys. 885, SVF II p.238.32-33=Gal. PHP 3.1.10, p.170.9-IO. 
119 Cj. Chrysippus, fr.phys. 898, SVF II pp.246.39-247.2=Gal. PHP 2.5, p.14O.28-32. 



PHILLIP H. DE LACY 369 

excess and defect, with virtue somewhere in between.12o It is a 
property of such a continuum that it can be cut at any of an in­
finitely large number of points 121 and that any two points on it will 
be opposites, the one closer to one extreme, the other closer to the 
other. In Galen's physiology there are some basic polarities, 
especially hot and cold, wet and dry, that present spreads of this 
kind; 122 and in a discussion of the Hippocratic "opposites are 
remedies for opposites" Galen points out that the things furthest 
apart in any genus are opposites, that there is between the extremes 
a /LECDV of due measure, and that between the extremes there is also 
an infinite number of opposites, differing from each other as being 
more or less. The physician's problem, he says, is to find in any 
instance of more or less the opposite that will restore due measure. 123 

In another passage, where Galen is discussing movements of the 
arm, he gives a range of positions of the arm, with a mean between 
two opposite poles.124 That the spread in these cases is a continuum 
in Aristotle's sense seems clear, but I have not found the term 
CVV€XEC in the Galenic passages. 

However that may be, it is evident that Galen's continuities are 
on the whole concrete: events in time or extensions in space. It is 
his use of a generalized concept of continuity to explain many of the 
structures, activities and malfunctions of the body that gives this 
concept an important place in his thought. 

~ARNEGAT LIGHT, NEW JERSEY 

August, I979 

120 Arist. Eth.Nic. 2.6, 1106a26. Cj. in Aristotelian biology the continuum of differences 
within a genus; Hist.An. 8.1, 588b5; Part.An. 1.3,643b33. 

121 The view that continuous magnitudes are infinitely divisible is assigned by Stobaeus 
to Aristotle and the Stoics; see Diels, Dox.Graee. pp.449.5, 461.30. Galen says that the 
infinite divisibility of magnitudes was established by the geometers: PHP8.2.8, p.492.5-7, 
V 663.5-8 K; cJ. PHP 8.2.4, p.490.19-20, V 662.2-3 K. 

122 See for example De temperamentis 1.8, I 558.4-14 K. Galen even refers (558.13) to a 
mean that is aKpwc ,;iJKparOC; if. Aristotle's description of the mean as an aKporT}c, Eth.Nie. 
2.6, l107a8. 

123 MM 11.12, X 767-773 K; if. also MM 9.15, X 650.7-651.16 K. 
124 Mot.muse. 2.1, IV 422-426 K. A possible, but not really probable, reference to such 

continua appears in Galen's list of the meanings of 8Lalpwc in PHP 9.9, V 803.17-804.1 K. 
One item on the list is the division of a continuum into its parts.