Editing Humorism (section)

==Influence and legacy==
===Islamic medicine===
{{See also|Medicine in medieval Islam|Unani}}
[[Medicine in medieval Islam|Medieval medical tradition]] in the [[Golden Age of Islam]] adopted the theory of humorism from Greco-Roman medicine, notably via the Persian polymath [[Avicenna]]'s ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]'' (1025). Avicenna summarized the four humors and temperaments as follows:<ref name=Lutz>{{Cite book|first=Peter L.|last=Lutz|year=2002|title=The Rise of Experimental Biology: An Illustrated History|url=https://archive.org/details/riseexperimental00lutz_645|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/riseexperimental00lutz_645/page/n73 60]|publisher=[[Humana Press]]|isbn=978-0896038356}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Avicenna's (ibn Sina) four humors and temperaments
|-
! Evidence
! Hot
! Cold
! Moist
! Dry
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Morbid states
| [[Inflammation]]s become [[Fever|febrile]]
| [[Fever]]s related to serious humor, [[rheumatism]]
| [[Fatigue (medical)|Lassitude]]
| Loss of [[wiktionary:vigour|vigour]]
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Functional power
| Deficient [[energy]]
| Deficient [[Digestion|digestive]] power
| Difficult digestion
| 
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Subjective sensations
| [[Bitterness (taste)|Bitter taste]], excessive [[thirst]], burning at [[stomach#Sections|cardia]]
| Lack of desire for [[fluid]]s
| [[Mucous connective tissue|Mucoid]] [[saliva]]tion, [[Somnolence|sleepiness]]
| [[Insomnia]], [[wakefulness]]
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Physical signs
| High [[pulse]] rate, [[Fatigue (medical)|lassitude]]
| Flaccid joints
| [[Diarrhea]], [[Periorbital puffiness|swollen eyelids]], [[Surface roughness|rough]] skin, acquired [[Habit (psychology)|habit]]
| Rough skin, acquired [[Habit (psychology)|habit]]
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Foods and medicines
| [[wiktionary:calefacient|Calefacients]] harmful, infrigidants<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Infrigidate |title=Infrigidate – ''The Free Dictionary'' |publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |access-date=2012-01-11}}</ref> beneficial
| Infrigidants harmful, calefacients beneficial
| [[Moisture|Moist]] articles harmful
| Dry regimen harmful, [[humectant]]s beneficial
|-
| style="background:#b0c4de;"| Relation to weather
| Worse in summer
| Worse in winter
| 
| Bad in autumn
|}

===Perso-Arabic and Indian medicine===
The Unani school of medicine, practiced in Perso-Arabic countries, India, and Pakistan, is based on [[Galen]]ic and [[Avicennism|Avicennian]] medicine in its emphasis on the four humors as a fundamental part of the methodologic paradigm.

===Western medicine===
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2022}}
The humoralist system of medicine was highly individualistic, for all patients were said to have their own unique humoral composition.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Bynum |editor-first=W.F. |title=Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine|date=1997|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0415164184|page=281|edition=1st pbk.|editor-last2=Porter |editor-first2=Roy}}</ref> From [[Hippocrates]] onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and [[Medicine in medieval Islam|Islamic physicians]], and dominated the view of the human body among [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|European physicians]] until at least 1543 when it was first seriously challenged by [[Andreas Vesalius]], who mostly criticized Galen's theories of human anatomy and not the chemical hypothesis of behavioural regulation (temperament).

[[File:Humorism.svg|thumb|The four humors and their qualities]]
Typical 18th-century practices such as [[bloodletting|bleeding]] a sick person or applying hot cups to a person were based on the humoral theory of imbalances of fluids (blood and bile in those cases). Methods of treatment like bloodletting, [[emetic]]s and purges were aimed at expelling a surplus of a humor.<ref>{{cite web|title=Popular medical treatments – cupping, bleeding and purging|url=https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/popular-medical-treatments-cupping-bleeding-and-purging|access-date=2021-02-14|website=Die Welt der Habsburger|language=en}}</ref> Apocroustics were medications intended to stop the flux of malignant humors to a diseased body part.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Apocroustic|encyclopedia=Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&entity=HistSciTech000900240156&isize=XL|last1=Knapton|first1=James|last2=Knapton|first2=John}}</ref>

16th-century Swiss physician [[Paracelsus]] further developed the idea that beneficial medical substances could be found in herbs, minerals and various alchemical combinations thereof. These beliefs were the foundation of mainstream Western medicine well into the 17th century. Specific minerals or herbs were used to treat ailments simple to complex, from an uncomplicated upper respiratory infection to the plague. For example, chamomile was used to decrease heat, and lower excessive bile humor. Arsenic was used in a poultice bag to 'draw out' the excess humor(s) that led to symptoms of the plague. [[Apophlegmatism]]s, in pre-modern medicine, were medications chewed in order to draw away phlegm and humors.

Although advances in cellular pathology and chemistry criticized humoralism by the 17th century, the theory had dominated Western medical thinking for more than 2,000 years.<ref name=NYT>NY Times Book Review [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/review/Nuland.html?ex=1341547200&en=28b87289415e5d35&ei=5088 Bad Medicine]</ref><ref name=Webster>[https://books.google.com/books?id=t8UfI3BH78wC&dq=medical%20dictionary%20humorism&pg=PA204 "Humoralism" entry], p. 204 in Webster's New World Medical Dictionary, 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009 {{ISBN|978-0544188976}}</ref> Only in some instances did the theory of humoralism wane into obscurity. One such instance occurred in the sixth and seventh centuries in the Byzantine Empire when traditional secular Greek culture gave way to Christian influences. Though the use of humoralist medicine continued during this time, its influence was diminished in favor of religion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Conrad |first=Lawrence I. |title=The Western medical tradition, 800 BC to AD 1800|date=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521475648|page=100|edition=Reprinted.}}</ref>  The revival of Greek humoralism, owing in part to changing social and economic factors, did not begin until the early ninth century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Conrad |first=Lawrence I. |title=The Western medical tradition, 800 BC to AD 1800|date=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521475648|page=101|edition=Reprinted.}}</ref>  Use of the practice in modern times is [[pseudoscience]].<ref name="pseudo">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=William F.|title=Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XpEAgAAQBAJ&q=Humorism+pseudoscience&pg=PT568|year= 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1135955298}}</ref>

===Modern use===
Humoral theory was the grand unified theory of medicine, before the invention of modern medicine, for more than 2,000 years. The theory was one of the fundamental tenets of the teachings of the Greek physician-philosopher Hippocrates (460–370&nbsp;BC), who is regarded as the first practitioner of medicine, appropriately referred to as the "Father of Modern Medicine".<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last1=Bhikha |first1=Rashid |last2=Glynn |first2=John |date=2017 |title=The Theory of Humours Revisited |url=https://www.academia.edu/44065524 |journal=International Journal of Development Research |volume=7 |issue=9 |pages=15029–15034}}</ref>

With the advent of the [[Doctrine of Specific Etiology]], the humoral theory's demise hastened even further. This demonstrates that there is only one precise cause and one specific issue for each and every sickness or disorder that has been diagnosed.<ref name=":5" /> Additionally, the identification of messenger molecules like hormones, growth factors, and neurotransmitters suggests that the humoral theory has not yet been made fully moribund. Humoral theory is still present in modern medical terminology, which refers to humoral immunity when discussing elements of immunity that circulate in the bloodstream, such as hormones and antibodies.<ref name=":5" />

Modern medicine refers to [[humoral immunity]] or humoral regulation when describing substances such as [[hormone]]s and [[antibody|antibodies]], but this is not a remnant of the humor theory. It is merely a literal use of ''humoral'', i.e. pertaining to bodily fluids (such as blood and lymph).

The concept of humorism was not definitively disproven until 1858.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=Webster/> There were no studies performed to prove or disprove the impact of dysfunction in known bodily organs producing named fluids (humors) on [[temperament]] traits simply because the list of temperament traits was not defined up until the end of the 20th century.

===Culture===
[[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]].
Through the neo-classical revival in Europe, the humor theory dominated medical practice, and the theory of humoral types made periodic appearances in drama. The humors were an important and popular iconographic theme in European art, found in paintings, tapestries,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mulherron|first=Jamie|date=2012|title=Jacob Jordaens's Elements and Humours Tapestries|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331312657|journal=Apollo|volume=National Trust Historic Houses and Collections Annual 2012|pages=4–11}}</ref> and sets of prints.

The humors can be found in [[Elizabethan literature|Elizabethan works]], such as in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', in which the character Petruchio, a choleric man, uses humoral therapy techniques on Katherina, a choleric woman, in order to tame her into the socially acceptable phlegmatic woman.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kern Paster |first1=Gail |title=William Shakespeare and the Four Humors: Elizabethan Medical Beliefs by Dr. Gail Kern Paster |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKt4pDZDefQ |website=Pitt Health Sciences Library System |publisher=YouTube |access-date=10 April 2023}}</ref> Some examples include: he yells at the servants for serving mutton, a choleric food, to two people who are already choleric; he deprives Katherina of sleep; and he, Katherina and their servant Grumio endure a cold walk home, for cold temperatures were said to tame choleric temperaments.

The theory of the four humors features prominently in [[Rupert Thomson]]'s 2005 novel ''[[Divided Kingdom]]''.