Editing Humorism (section)

==Origin==
{{See also|Ancient Greek medicine}}

The concept of "humors" may have origins in [[Ancient Egyptian medicine]],<ref name=Sertima-17>{{cite book |last=van Sertima|first=Ivan |author-link=Ivan van Sertima |year=1992 |title=The Golden Age of the Moor |page=[https://archive.org/details/goldenageofmoor00vans/page/17 17] |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |isbn=978-1560005810 |url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/goldenageofmoor00vans/page/17}}</ref> or [[Mesopotamia]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Sudhoff |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Sudhoff |title=Essays in the History of Medicine |pages=67, 87, 104 |year=1926 |publisher=Medical Life Press |location=New York City}}</ref> though it was not systemized until ancient Greek thinkers. The word ''humor'' is a translation of Greek {{Lang|grc|χυμός}},<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23115103 |first1=Henry George |last1=Liddell |first2=Robert |last2=Scott |work=A Greek-English Lexicon |title=χυ_μ-ός |via=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> {{Lang|grc-latn|chymos}} (literally 'juice' or '[[sap]]', metaphorically 'flavor'). Early texts on Indian [[Ayurveda]] medicine presented a theory of three or four humors (doṣas),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mazars |first1=Guy |title=A concise introduction to Indian medicine: la médecine indienne |last2=Mazars |first2=Guy |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ |year=2006 |isbn=978-81-208-3058-5 |edition=1st |series=Indian medical tradition |location=Delhi |pages=37–39 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Meulenbeld |first=Gerrit Jan |title=The Constraints of Theory in the Evolution of Nosological Classifications: A Study on the Position of Blood in Indian Medicine (Āyurveda) |date=1991-12-31 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/7951759 |access-date=2024-12-31 |publisher=Zenodo |language=en |doi=10.5281/zenodo.7951759}}</ref> which they sometimes linked with the five elements ({{Lang|sa-latn|[[Pancha Bhuta|pañca-bhūta]]}}): earth, water, fire, air, and space.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mazars |first=Guy |title=A concise introduction to Indian medicine: = La médecine Indienne |date=2006 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |isbn=978-81-208-3058-5 |edition=1st |series=Indian medical tradition |location=Delhi |chapter=Chapter 2}}</ref>

The concept of "humors" (chemical systems regulating human behaviour) became more prominent from the writing of medical theorist [[Alcmaeon of Croton]] (c. 540–500 BC). His list of humors was longer and included fundamental elements described by [[Empedocles]], such as water, earth, fire, air, etc. [[Hippocrates]] is usually credited with applying this idea to medicine. In contrast to Alcmaeon, Hippocrates suggested that humors are the vital bodily fluids: [[blood]], [[phlegm]], yellow bile, and black bile. Alcmaeon and Hippocrates posited that an extreme excess or deficiency of any of the humors ([[bodily fluid]]) in a person can be a sign of illness. Hippocrates, and then [[Galen]], suggested that a moderate imbalance in the mixture of these fluids produces behavioral patterns.<ref>Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), ''On the Sacred Disease''.</ref> One of the treatises attributed to Hippocrates, ''[[On the Nature of Man]]'', describes the theory as follows:

<blockquote>The Human body contains blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These are the things that make up its constitution and cause its pains and health. Health is primarily that state in which these constituent substances are in the correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quantity, and are well mixed. Pain occurs when one of the substances presents either a deficiency or an excess, or is separated in the body and not mixed with others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=W. N. |url=https://archive.org/details/hippocraticwriti0000hipp_a3h9/page/262/mode/1up |title=Hippocratic writings |date=1983 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0140444513 |editor=G. E. R. Lloyd |location=Harmondsworth |page=[https://archive.org/details/hippocraticwriti0000hipp/page/262 262] |translator=J Chadwick}}</ref> The body depends heavily on the four humors because their balanced combination helps to keep people in good health. Having the right amount of humor is essential for health. The pathophysiology of disease is consequently brought on by humor excesses and/or deficiencies.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Kalachanis |first1=Konstantinos |last2=Michailidis |first2=Ioannis E. |date=2015 |title=The Hippocratic View on Humors and Human Temperament |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283119853 |journal=European Journal of Social Behaviour |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=1–5 |via=EJSB}}</ref> </blockquote>

The existence of fundamental biochemical substances and structural components in the body remains a compellingly shared point with Hippocratic beliefs, despite the fact that current science has moved away from those four Hippocratic humors.<ref name=":2" />

Although the theory of the four humors does appear in some Hippocratic texts, other Hippocratic writers accepted the existence of only two humors, while some refrained from discussing the humoral theory at all.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lindberg|first=David C.|title=The Beginnings of Western Science: the European Scientific Tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context, prehistory to A.D. 1450|date=2007|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn= 978-0226482057| edition=2nd}}</ref> 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 (129–201&nbsp;AD). The four essential elements—humors—that make up the human body, according to Hippocrates, are in harmony with one another and act as a catalyst for preserving health.<ref name=":2" /> Hippocrates' theory of four humors was linked with the popular theory of the four elements (earth, fire, water, and air) proposed by [[Empedocles]], but this link was not proposed by Hippocrates or Galen, who referred primarily to bodily fluids. While Galen thought that humors were formed in the body, rather than ingested, he believed that different foods had varying potential to act upon the body to produce different humors. 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 humors formed. As such, certain seasons and geographic areas were understood to cause imbalances in the humors, leading to varying types of disease across time and place. For example, cities exposed to hot winds were seen as having higher rates of digestive problems as a result of excess phlegm running down from the head, while cities exposed to cold winds were associated with diseases of the lungs, acute diseases, and "hardness of the bowels", as well as ophthalmies (issues of the eyes), and nosebleeds. Cities to the west, meanwhile, were believed to produce weak, unhealthy, pale people that were subject to all manners of disease.<ref>Hippocrates, ''On Airs, Waters, and Places''.</ref> In the treatise, ''On Airs, Waters, and Places'', a Hippocratic physician is described arriving to an unnamed city where they test various factors of nature including the wind, water, and soil to predict the direct influence on the diseases specific to the city based on the season and the individual.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jouanna|first1=Jacques|title=Hippocratic Medicine and Greek Tragedy|date=2012 |journal=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|pages=55–80|editor-last=van der Eijk|editor-first=Philip|series=Selected Papers|publisher=Brill|last2=Allies|first2=Neil |doi=10.1163/9789004232549_005 |jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.9 |isbn=9789004232549 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

A fundamental idea of Hippocratic medicine was the endeavor to pinpoint the origins of illnesses in both the physiology of the human body and the influence of potentially hazardous environmental variables like air, water, and nutrition, and every humor has a distinct composition and is secreted by a different organ.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last1=Tsagkaris |first1=Christos |last2=Kalachanis |first2=Konstantinos |date=2020-09-20 |title=The Hippocratic account of Mental Health: Humors and Human Temperament |url=https://mhgcj.org/index.php/MHGCJ/article/view/83 |journal=Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=33–37 |doi=10.32437/mhgcj.v3i1.83 |issn=2612-2138|doi-access=free}}</ref> Aristotle's concept of eucrasia—a state resembling equilibrium—and its relationship to the right balance of the four humors allow for the maintenance of human health, offering a more mathematical approach to medicine.<ref name=":3" />

[[Image:Lavater1792.jpg|right|thumb|The four humors as depicted in an 18th-century woodcut: phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine and melancholic]]

The imbalance of humors, or [[dyscrasia]], was thought to be the direct cause of all diseases. Health was associated with a balance of humors, or [[eucrasia]]. The qualities of the humors, in turn, influenced the nature of the diseases they caused. Yellow bile caused warm diseases and phlegm caused cold diseases. In ''On the Temperaments'', Galen further emphasized the importance of the qualities. An ideal temperament involved a proportionally balanced mixture of the four qualities. Galen identified four temperaments in which one of the qualities (warm, cold, moist, or dry) predominated, and four more in which a combination of two (warm and moist, warm and dry, cold and dry, or cold and moist) dominated. These last four, named for the humors with which they were associated—sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic—eventually became better known than the others. While the term ''temperament'' came to refer just to [[Psychology|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.

Disease could also be the result of the "corruption" of one or more of the humors, which could be caused by environmental circumstances, dietary changes, or many other factors.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe|last=Lindemann|first=Mary|publisher= University Printing House|year=2010|isbn=978-0521272056|page=13}}</ref> These deficits were thought to be caused by vapors inhaled or absorbed by the body. Greeks and Romans, and the later Muslim and 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 of the four humors, then said patient's personality and/or physical health could be negatively affected.

Therefore, the goal of treatment was to rid the body of some of the excess humor through techniques like purging, bloodletting, catharsis, diuresis, and others. Bloodletting was already a prominent medical procedure by the first century, but venesection took on even more significance once Galen of Pergamum declared blood to be the most prevalent humor.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The history of bloodletting |url=https://bcmj.org/premise/history-bloodletting |access-date=2022-12-06 |website=British Columbia Medical Journal}}</ref> The volume of blood extracted ranged from a few drops to several litres over the course of several days, depending on the patient's condition and the doctor's practice.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=DP |date=2014 |title=The demise of bloodletting |url=https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/thomas_0.pdf |journal=J R Coll Physicians Edinb |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=72–77|doi=10.4997/JRCPE.2014.117 |doi-broken-date=2 December 2024 |pmid=24995453}}</ref>