Nutton, V

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Medical Historyhttp://journals.cambridge.org/MDHAdditional services for Medical History:Email alerts: Click hereSubscriptions: Click hereCommercial reprints: Click hereTerms of use : Click hereMark Grant, Galen on food and diet, London and NewYork, Routledge, 2000, pp. ix, 214, illus., £15.99(paperback 0415-23233-3).Vivian NuttonMedical History / Volume 45 / Issue 04 / October 2001, pp 562 - 563DOI: 10.1017/S0025727300068654, Published online: 16 November 2012Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0025727300068654How to cite this article:Vivian Nutton (2001). Medical History, 45, pp 562-563 doi:10.1017/S0025727300068654Request Permissions : Click hereDownloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/MDH, IP address: 144.82.107.82 on 08 Nov 2013Book ReviewsGreek is here followed, despite Schleifer'sdemonstration that its "Greekness" derivedfrom its incorporation oflarge chunks ofGalen in Syriac translation. Misprints areamazingly few, and none should causeproblems, except perhaps for page 169,n. 48, read "Vasquez Bujan", and for theuncoordinated placing of (3) on page 331.All those concerned in the production ofthis book deserve the heartiest ofcongratulations. Whether one is interestedin Galen as a writer of Greek and a literaryfigure or as a medical guru in his own dayand across the centuries, this edition offersa magnificent starting point for furtherresearch.Vivian Nutton,The Wellcome Trust Centre for the Historyof Medicine at UCLMark Grant, Galen onfood and diet,London and New York, Routledge, 2000,pp. ix, 214, illus., £15.99 (paperback 0415-23233-3).This new selection of translations fromGalen arouses mixed feelings in thiscurmudgeonly reviewer: gratitude for theaccessibility of some of the more interestingtexts in the Galenic Corpus, constantirritation at the many minor errors andmisunderstandings. Mark Grant, anexperienced cook as well as a classicsteacher, has chosen to turn into English avariety of treatises relating to diet, in boththe narrow sense of foodstuffs and thewider one of bodily constitution. On thepowers (better, properties?) offoods is filledwith fascinating glimpses of life in thecountryside of ancient Greece, and showsGalen's great skill as an observer and anexpositor. None of these treatises haspreviously been available in English, andthe translator can only be congratulated,not least on the felicitous way in whichGalen's rebarbative Greek has been turnedinto something more elegant. His experiencewith other ancient texts to do with foodsand cookery gives his identifications of thenames of plants authority.But there are also many mistakes, someof them serious. On pages 70-3, forexample, at 6.458 K. (alas, no references aregiven to enable those with Greek to cross-check easily), Grant fails to note anessential comparative: "there are evenpeople who can digest beef easier than rockfish" (for Galen, the most digestible of all).At 459 K., technicalities are misunderstood:read, "bile which should flow to the bowelsfrom the liver goes back up to the belly".At 461, pronouns are misunderstood; read,"everything boiled in water takes somethingfrom it [the water] and in return contributessomething of its own property". Theomission of a phrase at the top of 465 thenmakes nonsense of Galen's careful claimthat our digestive processes may be affectedby our natural constitution, an acquiredcondition of the stomach, or the essentialnature of the food that is being digested.Similar slips can be found throughout, to bedetected only by very close reading and thebelief that Galen did not write logicalnonsense.Other problems arise from Grant'sdecision to follow the old text of Kuhninstead of a more modern edition. It is truethat many errors in Kuhn have little effecton the sense, but sometimes they do. So, at515 K., the list of Bithynian cities is badlygarbled in Kuhn, and could have beeneasily corrected from Helmreich's 1924CMG edition-or from a glance at any mapof the region in Antiquity. At 518 K.mistranslation hides a point of crucialimportance: the peasants of Upper Mysiaalways use einkorn and rice-wheat for theirbread because their wheat is taken away tothe cities (elsewhere Galen notes, undercompulsion).Despite what is said, on page 2, Galennever studied at Corinth; on page 3, thesejourneys are very unlikely to have beenmade in 161 (better, 166-7), and I would562Book Reviewsnow argue for a date of death even as lateas 216/217; on page 5, Galen's style hasnothing to do with the "pointed" style ofSeneca or Tacitus. More seriously, in abook that claims to be a translation ofGalen, only a careful reading of thebibliography reveals that the first treatise'On the humours' is not in fact by him, butis a much later summary, albeit based onGalenic material. The unwary will go awaybelieving this to be a work by Galen; themore scrupulous will wonder why thetranslator did not defend his choice moreopenly.It is a pity that such errors andconfusions remain to mar what is otherwisea valuable and potentially useful collection.Vivian Nutton,The Wellcome Trust Centre for the Historyof Medicine at UCL563

Mark Grant, Galen on food and diet, London and New York, Routledge, 2000, pp. ix, 214, illus., £15.99 (paperback 0415-23233-3).

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