View source for Humorism

{{short description|Ancient Greek and Roman system of medicine involving four fluid types}}
{{About|humors in ancient and medieval medicine|the related theory of temperaments|Four temperaments|humors in Ayurveda|Dosha|the use of humor in writing or public speaking|Humorist}}
[[File:Quinta Essentia (Thurneisse) illustration Alchemic approach to four humors in relation to the four elements and zodiacal signs.jpg|thumb|16th-century German illustration of the four humors: ''Flegmat'' (phlegm), ''Sanguin'' (blood), ''Coleric'' (yellow bile) and ''Melanc'' (black bile), divided between the male and female sexes]]
'''Humorism''', the '''humoral theory''', or '''humoralism''', was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by [[Ancient Greek medicine|Ancient Greek]] and [[Medicine in ancient Rome|Roman physicians]] and [[Greek philosophy|philosophers]].

Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 17th century and it was definitively disproved with the discovery of [[microbes]].

==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) |work=Medical Literature from India, Sri Lanka, and Tibet |date=1991-12-31 |pages=91–106 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/7951759 |access-date=2024-12-31 |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.{{cn|date=October 2025}}

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.{{cn|date=October 2025}}

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|date=7 May 2018 }}</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 |pmid=24995453}}</ref>

==Four humors==
Even though humorism theory had several models that used two, three, and five components, the most famous model consists of the four humors described by [[Hippocrates]] and developed further by [[Galen]]. The four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black [[bile]] (Greek: {{Lang|grc|μέλαινα χολή}}, ''{{transliteration|grc|melaina chole}}''), yellow bile (Greek: {{Lang|grc|ξανθὴ χολή}}, ''{{transliteration|grc|xanthe chole}}''), [[phlegm]] (Greek: {{Lang|grc|φλέγμα}}, ''{{transliteration|grc|phlegma}}''), and [[blood]] (Greek: {{Lang|grc|αἷμα}}, {{Lang|grc-latn|haima}}). Each corresponds to one of the traditional [[four temperaments]]. Based on Hippocratic medicine, it was believed that for a body to be healthy, the four humors should be balanced in amount and strength.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jackson|first=William A|title=A short guide to humoral medicine|journal=Trends in Pharmacological Sciences|volume=22|issue=9|pages=487–89|doi=10.1016/s0165-6147(00)01804-6|pmid=11543877|year=2001}}</ref> The proper blending and balance of the four humors was known as {{Lang|grc-latn|eukrasia}}.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Karenberg|first=A.|date=2015|title=Blood, Phlegm and Spirits: Galen on Stroke|journal=History of Medicine |volume=2|issue=2|doi=10.17720/2409-5834.v2.2.2015.15k|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |issn=2409-5834}}</ref>

Humorism theory was improved by Galen, who incorporated his understanding of the humors into his interpretation of the human body. He believed the interactions of the humors within the body were the key to investigating the physical nature and function of the organ systems. Galen combined his interpretation of the humors with his collection of ideas concerning nature from past philosophers in order to find conclusions about how the body works. For example, Galen maintained the idea of the presence of the Platonic tripartite soul, which consisted of "{{Lang|grc-latn|thumos}} (spiritedness), {{Lang|grc-latn|epithumos}} (directed spiritedness, i.e. desire), and {{Lang|grc-latn|Sophia}} (wisdom)".<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Boylan|first=Michael|date=2007|title=Galen: On Blood, the Pulse, and the Arteries|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/29737480|journal=Journal of the History of Biology|volume=40|issue=2|pages=207–30|doi=10.1007/s10739-006-9116-2|jstor=29737480|pmid=18175602|s2cid=30093918|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Through this, Galen found a connection between these three parts of the soul and the three major organs that were recognized at the time: the brain, the heart, and the liver.<ref name=":0" /> This idea of connecting vital parts of the soul to vital parts of the body was derived from Aristotle's sense of explaining physical observations, and Galen utilized it to build his view of the human body. The organs (named {{Lang|grc-latn|organa}}) had specific functions (called {{Lang|grc-latn|chreiai}}) that contributed to the maintenance of the human body, and the expression of these functions is shown in characteristic activities (called {{Lang|grc-latn|energeiai}}) of a person.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hankinson|first=R. J.|date=1991|title=Galen's Anatomy of the Soul |journal=Phronesis|volume=36|issue=2|pages=197–233 |doi=10.1163/156852891321052787|jstor=4182386}}</ref> While the correspondence of parts of the body to the soul was an influential concept, Galen decided that the interaction of the four humors with natural bodily mechanisms were responsible for human development and this connection inspired his understanding of the nature of the components of the body.

[[Galen]] recalls the correspondence between humors and [[season]]s in his ''On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato'', and says that, "As for ages and the seasons, the child ({{Lang|grc|παῖς}}) corresponds to spring, the young man ({{Lang|grc|νεανίσκος}}) to summer, the mature man ({{Lang|grc|παρακµάζων}}) to autumn, and the old man ({{Lang|grc|γέρων}}) to winter".<ref>{{cite book |last=Jouanna |first=Jacques |chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|page=339|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004232549|doi=10.1163/9789004232549_017|title=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|year=2012|doi-access=free}}</ref> He also related a correspondence between humors and seasons based on the properties of both. Blood, as a humor, was considered hot and wet. This gave it a correspondence to spring. Yellow bile was considered hot and dry, which related it to summer. Black bile was considered cold and dry, and thus related to autumn. Phlegm, cold and wet, was related to winter.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jouanna|first=Jacques|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|date=2012-01-01|title=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|pages=335–59|publisher=Brill|doi=10.1163/9789004232549_017|isbn=9789004232549|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Galen also believed that the characteristics of the soul follow the mixtures of the body, but he did not apply this idea to the Hippocratic humors. He believed that phlegm did not influence character. In his ''On Hippocrates{{'}} The Nature of Man'', Galen stated: "Sharpness and intelligence ({{Lang|grc|ὀξὺ καὶ συνετόν}}) are caused by yellow bile in the soul, perseverance and consistency ({{Lang|grc|ἑδραῖον καὶ βέβαιον}}) by the melancholic humor, and simplicity and naivety ({{Lang|grc|ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἠλιθιώτερον}}) by blood. But the nature of phlegm has no effect on the character of the soul ({{Lang|grc|τοῦ δὲ φλέγµατος ἡ φύσις εἰς µὲν ἠθοποιῗαν ἄχρηστος}})."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jouanna|first=Jacques|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|page=340|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004232549|doi=10.1163/9789004232549_017|title=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|year=2012|doi-access=free}}</ref> He further said that blood is a mixture of the four elements: water, air, fire, and earth.

These terms only partly correspond to modern medical terminology, in which there is no distinction between black and yellow bile, and phlegm has a very different meaning. It was believed that the humors were the basic substances from which all liquids in the body were made. [[Robin Fåhræus]] (1921), a Swedish physician who devised the [[erythrocyte sedimentation rate]], suggested that the four humors were based upon the observation of blood clotting in a transparent container. When blood is drawn in a glass container and left undisturbed for about an hour, four different layers can be seen: a dark clot forms at the bottom (the "black bile"); above the clot is a layer of red blood cells (the "blood"); above this is a whitish layer of white blood cells (the "phlegm"); the top layer is clear yellow serum (the "yellow bile").<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hart GD|date=December 2001|title=Descriptions of blood and blood disorders before the advent of laboratory studies|url=http://www.bloodmed.com/home/hannpdf/bjh3130.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Br. J. Haematol.|volume=115|issue=4|pages=719–28|doi=10.1046/j.1365-2141.2001.03130.x|pmid=11843802|s2cid=10602937|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708073035/http://www.bloodmed.com/home/hannpdf/bjh3130.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-08}}</ref>

Many [[Greek language|Greek]] texts were written during the golden age of the theory of the four humors in [[Ancient Greek medicine|Greek medicine]] after Galen. One of those texts was an anonymous treatise called ''On the Constitution of the Universe and of Man'', published in the mid-19th century by J. L. Ideler. In this text, the author establishes the relationship between elements of the universe (air, water, earth, fire) and elements of the man (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm).<ref>{{cite book |last=Jouanna|first=Jacques|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|page=342|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004232549|doi=10.1163/9789004232549_017|title=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|year=2012|doi-access=free}}</ref> He said that:

* The people who have red blood are friendly. They joke and laugh about their bodies, and they are rose-tinted, slightly red, and have pretty skin.
* The people who have yellow bile are bitter, short tempered, and daring. They appear greenish and have yellow skin. 
* The people who are composed of black bile are lazy, fearful, and sickly. They have black hair and black eyes.
* Those who have phlegm are low spirited, forgetful, and have white hair.

Seventeenth century English playwright [[Ben Jonson]] wrote [[Comedy of humours|humor plays]], where character types were based on their humoral complexion.

===Blood===
It was thought that the nutritional value of the blood was the source of energy for the body and the soul. Blood was believed to consist of small proportional amounts of the other three humors. This meant that taking a blood sample would allow for determination of the balance of the four humors in the body.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2021|title=Biomedicine and Health: Galen and Humoral Theory|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/science-magazines/biomedicine-and-health-galen-and-humoral-theory|website=encyclopedia.com}}</ref> It was associated with a [[Four temperaments#Four fundamental personality types|sanguine]] nature (enthusiastic, active, and social).<ref>[http://classprojects.kenyon.edu/wmns/Wmns36/bloodli/medframe.htm Medical Blood] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226173144/http://classprojects.kenyon.edu/wmns/Wmns36/bloodli/medframe.htm |date=2015-02-26 }} Page accessed Feb 15, 2015</ref><ref>Byron Good. [https://books.google.com/books?id=p7-Enmqb604C&dq=humours+blood+liver&pg=PA105 Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective] Cambridge University Press, 1994 {{ISBN|978-0521425766}}</ref>{{rp|103–05}} Blood is considered to be hot and wet, sharing these characteristics with the season of spring.<ref name="Brill">{{cite book|last1=Jouanna|first1=Jacques|title=The Legacy of the Hippocrates Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|date=2012|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21|work=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|pages=335–60|editor-last=van der Eijk|editor-first=Philip|series=Selected Papers|publisher=Brill|access-date=2021-12-06|last2=Allies|first2=Neil|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise the Nature of Man|jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21}}</ref>

===Yellow bile===
Yellow bile was associated with a [[Four temperaments#Four fundamental personality types|choleric]] nature (ambitious, decisive, aggressive, and short-tempered).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://malankazlev.com/kheper/topics/typology/four_humours.html|title=The Four Humours|website=malankazlev.com|access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref> It was thought to be fluid found within the [[gallbladder]], or in excretions such as vomit and feces.<ref name=":1" /> The associated qualities for yellow bile are hot and dry with the natural association of summer and fire. It was believed that an excess of this humor in an individual would result in emotional irregularities such as increased anger or irrational behaviour.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Viswanathan|first=VK|date=2010|title=Humor me|journal=Gut Microbes|volume=1|issue=2|pages=75–76|doi=10.4161/gmic.1.2.11227|issn=1949-0976|pmc=3023582|pmid=21326912}}</ref>

===Black bile===
Black bile was associated with a [[Four temperaments#Four fundamental personality types|melancholy]] nature, the word ''melancholy'' itself deriving from the Greek for 'black bile', {{Lang|grc|μέλαινα χολή}} ({{Lang|grc-latn|melaina kholé}}). Depression was attributed to excess or unnatural black bile secreted by the [[spleen]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/melancholy|title=melancholy {{!}} Origin and meaning of melancholy by Online Etymology Dictionary|website=www.etymonline.com|language=en|access-date=2019-05-03}}</ref>
Cancer was also attributed to an excess of black bile concentrated in a specific area.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-basics/history-of-cancer/cancer-causes-theories-throughout-history.html |title=Early Theories about Cancer Causes |publisher=The American Cancer Society |website=www.cancer.org|language=en|access-date=2020-10-08}}</ref> The seasonal association of black bile was to autumn as the cold and dry characteristics of the season reflect the nature of man.<ref name="Brill"/>

===Phlegm===
Phlegm was associated with all [[Four temperaments#Four fundamental personality types|phlegmatic]] nature, thought to be associated with reserved behavior.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/142540 |title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oed.com |date=2019-12-31 |access-date=2020-04-04}}</ref> The phlegm of humorism is far from [[phlegm]] as it is defined today. Phlegm was used as a general term to describe white or colorless secretions such as pus, mucus, saliva, or sweat.<ref name=":1" /> Phlegm was also associated with the brain, possibly due to the color and consistency of brain tissue.<ref name=":1" /> The French physiologist and Nobel laureate [[Charles Richet]], when describing humorism's "phlegm or pituitary secretion" in 1910, asked rhetorically, "this strange liquid, which is the cause of [[Neoplasm|tumours]], of [[Hypochromic anemia|chlorosis]], of [[rheumatism]], and [[cacochymia]] – where is it? Who will ever see it? Who has ever seen it? What can we say of this fanciful classification of humors into four groups, of which two are absolutely imaginary?"<ref>{{cite journal |pmc=2336103 |pmid=20765282 |volume=2 |issue=2596 |title=An Address On Ancient Humorism and Modern Humorism: Delivered at the International Congress of Physiology held in Vienna, September 27th to 30th |year=1910 |journal=Br Med J |pages=921–26 |author=Richet C |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.2596.921}}</ref> The seasonal association of phlegm is winter due to the natural properties of being cold and wet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jouanna|first1=Jacques|title= The Legacy of the Hippocrates Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours|date=2012|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21|work=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|pages=335–60|editor-last=van der Eijk|editor-first=Philip|series=Selected Papers|publisher=Brill|access-date=2021-12-06|last2=Allies|first2=Neil|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise the Nature of Man|jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21}}</ref>

== Humor production ==
Humors were believed to be produced via digestion as the final products of hepatic digestion. [[Digestion]] is a continuous process taking place in every animal, and it can be divided into four sequential stages.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Relation between Body Humors and Hypercholesterolemia: An Iranian Traditional Medicine Perspective Based on the Teaching of Avicenna |journal=Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=133–38 |last=Emtiazy |first=M |pmc= 3372029 |year=2012 |pmid=22737569}}</ref> The [[gastric]] digestion stage, the [[Liver|hepatic]] digestion stage, the vascular digestion stage, and the [[tissue digestion]] stage. Each stage digests food until it becomes suitable for use by the body. In gastric digestion, food is made into chylous, which is suitable for the [[liver]] to absorb and carry on digestion. Chylous is changed into chymous in the hepatic digestion stage. Chymous is composed of the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These four humors then circulate in the [[blood vessel]]s. In the last stage of digestion, tissue digestion, food becomes similar to the organ tissue for which it is destined.

If anything goes wrong leading up to the production of humors, there will be an imbalance leading to disease. Proper organ functioning is necessary in the production of good humor. The [[stomach]] and liver also have to function normally for proper digestion. If there are any abnormalities in gastric digestion, the liver, blood vessels, and tissues cannot be provided with the raw chylous, which can cause abnormal humor and blood composition. A healthy functioning liver is not capable of converting abnormal chylous into normal chylous and normal humors.

Humors are the end product of gastric digestion, but they are not the end product of the digestion cycle, so an abnormal humor produced by hepatic digestion will affect other digestive organs.

== Relation to jaundice ==
According to Hippocratic humoral theory, [[jaundice]] is present in the [[Hippocratic Corpus]]. Some of the first descriptions of jaundice come from the Hippocratic physicians (icterus).<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Papavramidou |first1=Niki |last2=Fee |first2=Elizabeth |last3=Christopoulou-Aletra |first3=Helen |date=2007-12-01 |title=Jaundice in the Hippocratic Corpus |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-007-0281-1 |journal=Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery |language=en |volume=11 |issue=12 |pages=1728–1731 |doi=10.1007/s11605-007-0281-1 |pmid=17896166 |s2cid=9253867 |issn=1873-4626|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The ailment appears multiple times in the Hippocratic Corpus, where its genesis, description, prognosis, and therapy are given. The five kinds of jaundice mentioned in the Hippocratic Corpus all share a yellow or greenish skin color.<ref name=":4" />

A modern doctor will undoubtedly start to think of the symptoms listed in contemporary atlases of medicine after reading the clinical symptoms of each variety of jaundice listed in the Hippocratic Corpus. Despite the fact that the Hippocratic physicians' therapeutic approaches have little to do with contemporary medical practice, their capacity for observation as they described the various forms of jaundice is remarkable.<ref name=":4" /> In the Hippocratic Corpus, the Hippocratic physicians make multiple references to jaundice. At that time, jaundice was viewed as an illness unto itself rather than a symptom brought on by a disease.<ref name=":4" />

==Unification with Empedocles's model==
[[Empedocles]]'s theory suggested that there are [[Classical element|four elements]]: earth, fire, water, and air, with the earth producing the natural systems. Since this theory was influential for centuries, later scholars paired qualities associated with each humor as described by Hippocrates/Galen with seasons and "basic elements" as described by [[Empedocles]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wittendorff|first=Alex|title=Tyge Brahe|publisher=G.E.C. Gad|year=1994|page=45}}</ref>

The following table shows the four humors with their corresponding elements, seasons, sites of formation, and resulting temperaments:<ref>{{cite book |author=Lewis-Anthony, Justin |title=Circles of Thorns: Hieronymus Bosch and Being Human |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2008 |page=70 |isbn=978-1906286217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7WD45AoYO0EC&q=adulthood}}</ref>
	 
{| cellpadding="5"  style="background:#a8a8a8; font-size:small; table-layout:auto; border:1px; border-color:#000; border-style:solid;"
|- style="background:#edb;"
| '''Humor'''
| '''Season'''
| '''Age'''
| '''Element'''
| '''Organ'''
| colspan="2" | '''Temperaments'''
|- style="background:#feb7b7;"
| Blood
| Spring
| Infancy
| [[Air (classical element)|Air]]
| [[Liver]]
| Warm and moist
| [[Four Temperaments#Sanguine|Sanguine]]
|- style="background:#dfe36f;"
| Yellow bile
| Summer
| Youth
| [[Fire (classical element)|Fire]]
| [[Gallbladder]]
| Warm and dry
| [[Choleric]]
|- style="background:#ccc;"
| Black bile
| Autumn
| Adulthood
| [[Earth (classical element)|Earth]]
| [[Spleen]]
| Cold and dry
| [[Melancholia|Melancholic]]
|- style="background:#a9d889;"
| Phlegm
| Winter
| Old age
| [[Water (classical element)|Water]]
| [[Human brain|Brain]]/[[Lungs]]
| Cold and moist
| [[Phlegmatic]]
|}

==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 |date=7 October 2014 |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]]''.

==See also==
* [[Classical element]]
* [[Comedy of humours]]
* [[Dosha]]
* [[Four temperaments]]
* [[Mitama]]
* [[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)]]

==References==
<references>
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/shakespeare/fourhumors.html
</references>

== Bibliography ==

*Conrad, Lawrence I. ''The Western Medical Tradition 800 BC to AD 1800''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
*Edwards. "A treatise concerning the plague and the pox discovering as well the meanes how to preserve from the danger of these infectious contagions, as also how to cure those which are infected with either of them". 1652.
*Emtiazy, M., Keshavarz, M., Khodadoost, M., Kamalinejad, M., Gooshahgir, S. A., Shahrad Bajestani, H., ... Alizad, M. (2012). Relation between Body Humors and Hypercholesterolemia: An Iranian Traditional Medicine Perspective Based on the Teaching of Avicenna. ''Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal'', '''14'''(3), 133–138.
*{{cite journal |doi=10.17720/2409-5834.v2.2.2015.15k|title=Blood, Phlegm and Spirits: Galen on Stroke|year=2015|last1=Karenberg|first1=A.|journal=History of Medicine: The Russian Journal|volume=2|issue=2|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }}
*Moore, Philip. "The hope of health wherin is conteined a goodlie regimente of life: as medicine, good diet and the goodlie vertues of sonderie herbes, doen by Philip Moore." 1564.
*[[Robert Burton (scholar)|Burton, Robert]]. 1621. ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]'', Book I, New York 2001, p.&nbsp;147:  "The radical or innate is daily supplied by nourishment, which some call cambium, and make those secondary humors of ros and gluten to maintain it [...]".
*{{cite book |jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21|chapter=The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise the Nature of Man|title=Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen|year=2012|pages=335–360|publisher=Brill|series=Studies in Ancient Medicine |volume=40|editor-last=van der Eijk|editor-first=Philip|last1=Jouanna|first1=Jacques|last2=Allies|first2=Neil}}
*Williams, William F. ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy''. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013.

==External links==
* BBC Radio4's ''In Our Time''. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008h5dz Episode on the four humors] in MP3 format, 45 minutes.

{{Ancient Roman medicine}}{{Pseudoscience}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Humorism| ]]
[[Category:Obsolete medical theories]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek medicine]]
[[Category:Mythological substances]]