Galenism

The doctrines put forth by Galen. Galenists, n. pl. (Eccl. Hist.) A religious sect, a branch of Water land i ans, Men no nites, or Anabaptists, which arose in the 17th century. Their founder was Galen Abraham Haan, pastor of a Men no nite congregation in Amsterdam, a man of great penetration and eloquence, who was disposed to lay much more stre upon practice than faith, and held that all who acknowledged the divine origin of the Old and New Testament, and led holy and virtuous lives, ought to be received into their communion. (Med. Hist .) A term applied to those who adhered to the system of Galen, more particularly as opposed to the chemical school. The former ran much upon multiplying herbs and roots in the same composition, which they usually prescribed in the form of tinctures or extracts; while the latter dealt chiefly with mineral substances, and profe ed, by means of various chemical proce es or operations, to extract the virtues or e ences out of them into a very small compa .