Humorism, or humoralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. From Hippocrates onward, the humor theory was the most commonly-held view of the human body among European physicians until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... For other uses, see Hippocrates (disambiguation). ...

Essentially, this theory held that the human body was filled with four basic substances, called Four humours, or humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. All diseases and disabilities resulted from an excess or deficit of one of these four humors. The four humors were identified as black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Greeks and Romans, and the later Western-European medical establishments that adopted and adapted classical medical philosophy, believed that each of these humors would wax and wane in the body, depending on diet and activity. When a patient was suffering from a surplus or imbalance of one fluid, then his or her personality and physical health, would be affected. Melancholia (Greek μελαγχολια) was described as a distinct disease as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC in the Hippocratic writings. ... Choleric is a temperament in the ancient medical theory of the four humours. ... Phlegm (pronounced ) is sticky fluid secreted by the typhoid membranes of animals. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ...

Theophrastus and others developed a set of "characters" based on the humors. Those with too much blood were sanguine. Those with too much phlegm were phlegmatic. Those with too much yellow bile were choleric, and those with too much black bile were melancholic. The idea of human personality based on humors contributed to the character comedies of Menander and, later, Plautus. Theophrastus (Greek Θεόφραστος, 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Bust of Menander Menander (342–291 BC) (Greek ), Greek dramatist, the chief representative of the New Comedy, was born in Athens. ... Titus Macchius Plautus, generally referred to simply as Plautus, was a playwright of Ancient Rome. ...

Through the neo-classical revival in Europe, the humor theory dominated medical practice, and the theory of humoral types made periodic appearance in drama. Such typically "eighteenth century" practices as bleeding a sick person, or applying hot cups to a person, were, in fact, based on the humor theory of surpluses of fluids (blood and bile in those cases). Ben Jonson wrote humor plays, where types were based on their humoral complexion. This does not cite any references or sources. ... For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ... ...

Additionally, because people believed that there were finite amounts of humors in the body, there were folk/medical beliefs that the loss of fluids was a form of death.

History and the connection with Temperament theory

Although modern medical science has thoroughly discredited Humorism, this "wrong-headed theory dominated medical thinking... until at least the middle of the 20th century, and in certain ways continues to influence modern-day diagnosis and therapy." ^[1]

The concept was developed by ancient Greek thinkers around 400 BC and was directly linked with another popular theory of the four elements earth, fire, water, and air (Empedocles). Paired qualities were associated with each humour and its season. The word humour derives from the Greek χυμός, chymos (literally juice or sap, metaphorically flavor). The Celtics claim Vienna, Austria. ... Hinduism (Tattva) and Buddhism (MahābhÅ«ta) Vayu / Pavan — Air / Wind Agni/Tejas — Fire Akasha — Aether Prithvi / Bhumi — Earth Ap / Jala — Water Chinese (Wu Xing) Japanese (Godai) Earth (地) | Water (æ°´) | Fire (火) | Air / Wind (風) | Void / Sky / Heaven (空) Bön Māori Many ancient philosophies used a set of archetypal classical elements to... Empedocles (Greek: , ca. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... For other uses, see Juice (disambiguation). ... The abbreviation, acronym, or initialism SAP has several different meanings: SAP AG, a German software company, or its various products such as SAP R/3 or SAP Business Information Warehouse second audio program (television) Session Announcement Protocol Soritong audio player Simple As Possible Computer Architecture Structural Adjustment Program of the... This article is about flavor as a sensory impression. ...

The four humours, their corresponding elements, seasons and sites of formation, and resulting temperaments alongside their modern equivalents are:

Hippocrates is the one credited for applying this idea to medicine. "Humoralism" or the doctrine of the Four Temperaments as a medical theory retained its popularity for centuries largely through the influence of the writings of Galen (131-201 AD) and was decisively displaced only in 1858 by Rudolf Virchow's newly-published theories of cellular pathology. While Galen thought that humours were formed in the body, rather than ingested, he believed that different foods had varying potential to be acted upon by the body to produce different humours. Warm foods, for example, tended to produce yellow bile, while cold foods tended to produce phlegm. Seasons of the year, periods of life, geographic regions and occupations also influenced the nature of the humours formed. The Center for Applications of Psychological Type is a non-profit organization co-founded by Isabel Myers in 1975 for MBTI development, research and training. ... Look up air in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The liver is an organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. ... Sanguine can refer to: Sanguine personality - optimistic, cheerful, even-tempered, confident, rational, popular, fun-loving Sanguine is the temperament of blood - one of the four humours Sanguine is a tincture in heraldry, otherwise one of the staynard colours (stains). ... An artisan, also called a craftsman,[1] is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. ... For other uses, see Fire (disambiguation). ... The gallbladder (or cholecyst) is a pear-shaped organ that stores bile (or gall) until the body needs it for digestion. ... Choleric is a temperament in the ancient medical theory of the four humours. ... In philosophy, idealism is any theory positing the primacy of spirit, mind, or language over matter. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... The spleen is an organ located in the abdomen, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and holding a reservoir of blood. ... Melancholia (Greek μελαγχολια) was described as a distinct disease as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC in the Hippocratic writings. ... This article is not about continental rationalism. ... Irritation is an observable physiological reaction to a stimulus that the organism instinctually avoids. ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... For other uses, see Brain (disambiguation). ... The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The lung is an organ belonging to the respiratory system and interfacing to the circulatory system of air-breathing vertebrates. ... Phlegmatic is a temperament in the theory of the four humours. ... For other uses, see Hippocrates (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Galen (disambiguation). ... Events Emperor Hadrian builds the city Aelia Capitolina on the location of Jerusalem Births Galen, anatomist Deaths Categories: 131 ... For the New Jersey area code, see Area code 201. ... Year 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... [[ Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (born October 13, 1821, in Schivelbein (Pomerania); died September 5, 1902, in Berlin) was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician. ... Drawing of the structure of cork as it appeared under the microscope to Robert Hooke from Micrographia which is the origin of the word cell being used to describe the smallest unit of a living organism Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) The cell is the... A renal cell carcinoma (chromophobe type) viewed on a hematoxylin & eosin stained slide Pathologist redirects here. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... Map of the Earth Geography (from the Greek words Geo (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning Earth, and graphein (γραφειν) meaning to describe or to writeor to map) is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The imbalance of humours, or "dyscrasia", was thought to be the direct cause of all diseases. Health was associated with a balance of humours, or eucrasia. The qualities of the humours, in turn, influenced the nature of the diseases they caused. Yellow bile caused warm diseases and phlegm caused cold diseases. Dyscrasia (from Greek Dyskrasia, meaning bad mixture), in Ancient Greek medicine, is the imbalance of the four humours, and was believed to be the direct cause of all disease. ... A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. ... Eucrasia The great physician Galen (130-199 a. ...

In On the Temperaments Galen further emphasized the importance of the qualities. An ideal temperament involved a balanced mixture of the four qualities. Galen identified four temperaments in which one of the qualities, warm, cold, moist and dry, predominated and four more in which a combination of two, warm and moist, warm and dry, cold and dry and cold and moist, dominated. These last four, named for the humours with which they were associated—that is, sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic, eventually became better known than the others. While the term "temperament" came to refer just to psychological dispositions, Galen used it to refer to bodily dispositions, which determined a person's susceptibility to particular diseases as well as behavioral and emotional inclinations. For temperament in dog fancy, see conformation point. ... Sanguine can refer to: Sanguine personality - optimistic, cheerful, even-tempered, confident, rational, popular, fun-loving Sanguine is the temperament of blood - one of the four humours Sanguine is a tincture in heraldry, otherwise one of the staynard colours (stains). ... Choleric is a temperament in the ancient medical theory of the four humours. ... Melancholy redirects here. ... Phlegmatic is a temperament in the theory of the four humours. ... Psychology (from Greek: ψυχή, psukhÄ“, spirit, soul; λόγος, logos, knowledge) is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ...

The four temperaments (Clockwise from top right; choleric; melancholic; sanguine; phlegmatic).

Methods of treatment like blood letting, emetics and purges were aimed at expelling a harmful surplus of a humour. They remained part of mainstream Western medicine into the 16th century when William Harvey investigated the circulatory system. Other methods used herbs and foods associated with a particular humour to counter symptoms of disease, for instance: people who had a fever and were sweating were considered hot and wet and therefore given substances associated with cold and dry. Image File history File links Lavater1. ... Image File history File links Lavater1. ... Bloodletting (or blood-letting, in modern medicine referred to as phlebotomy) was a popular medical practice from antiquity up to the late 19th century, involving the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the belief that this would cure or prevent illness and disease. ... Vomiting (or emesis) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of ones stomach through the mouth. ... William Harvey William Harvey (April 1, 1578 – June 3, 1657) was an English medical doctor, who is credited with being the first to correctly describe, in exact detail, the properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart. ...

There are still remnants of the theory of the four humours in the current medical language. For example, we refer to humoral immunity or humoral regulation to mean substances like hormones and antibodies that are circulated throughout the body, or use the term blood dyscrasia to refer to any blood disease or abnormality. The associated food classification survives in adjectives that are still used for food, as when we call some spices hot and some wine dry. When the chilli pepper was first introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century, dieticians disputed whether it was hot or cold. Humoral immunity is the aspect of immunity that is mediated by secreted antibodies, produced in the cells of the B lymphocyte lineage (B cell). ... Norepinephrine A hormone (from Greek όρμή - to set in motion) is a chemical messenger from one cell (or group of cells) to another. ... Each antibody binds to a specific antigen; an interaction similar to a lock and key. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ... Hematology (American English) or haematology (British English) is the branch of biology (physiology), pathology, clinical laboratory, internal medicine, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases. ... The chile pepper (also chili or chilli; from Spanish chile) is the fruit of the plant Capsicum from the nightshade family (Solanaceae). ...

The humours can be found in Elizabethan works, such as in Taming of the Shrew, in which the character Petruchio pretends to be irritable and angry to show Katherina what it's like being around a disagreeable person. He yells at the servants for them serving mutton, a "choleric" food, to two people who are already choleric. The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. ... The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. ...

Foods in Elizabethan times were believed all to have an affinity with one of these four humours. A person suffering from a sickness in which they were coughing up phlegm were believed to be too phlegmatic, and might have been served wine (a choleric drink and the direct opposite humour to phlegmatic) to balance it out.

The theory was a modest advance over the previous views on human health that tried to explain disease in terms of evil spirits. Since then practitioners have started to look for natural causes of disease and to provide natural treatments.

The Unani school of Indian medicine, still apparently practiced in India, is very similar to Galenic medicine in its emphasis on the four humours, and in treatments based on controlling intake, general environment, and the use of purging as a way of relieving humoral imbalances. Unaani (in Arabic, Hindustani, Persian, Pashtu, Urdu etc) means Greek. ...

References

1. ^ NY Times Book Review Bad Medicine

See also

• Four Temperaments
• Five elements (Chinese philosophy)
• Five Temperaments