Editing Humorism (section)

===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>