The article is devoted to the writings of Galen "De venae sectione adversus Erasistrateos Romae degentes". The author focuses on the analysis of the debate between Galen and his opponents, the subject of which is an approach to the problem of "plethora" and one of the ways to treat it – "cutting of veins" (venotomy). Galen and doctors of the Erasistratus school diff erently assessed a patients' condition, and the clinical picture of the disease is described in the treatise.