Ancient Medical Practices: Humorism. (Not as Funny as it Sounds.)

Welcome back to the History Nook.

Today we’re exploring Humorism, (spell checker, I promise I did spell that one right,) the belief that the human body is comprised of four substances that control human behaviour.

So grab your favourite mug, find a soft space to curl up, and let’s wander a little deeper into the past. The concept of the Four Humors dates back to ancient Greece and Rome with some evidence that it may be older than that, but for the purpose of this post, we are going to focus on Hippocrates and Galen. The theory of the Four Humors was adopted by medical practitioners during the Golden age of Islam, which is another topic that deserves an entire post of its own.

The theory is that the human body consists of four substances, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The word humor comes from Greek and translates as juice or sap, and knowing that does not make this topic any easier to take seriously, and you're about to see why.

I tried to do some very serious research into Humorism, but I then I stumbled upon this delightful quote from Helen King, "Parmenides and others apparently believed, in contrast, that women were the hotter sex, since they clearly have more blood and blood is humorally hot and wet." This got me thinking, and the next part of the excerpt that I read confirmed my theory. "Mature women's bodies, being wetter and softer than those of men, absorbed a greater amount of fluid from their diet and, due to women's supposedly less active lifestyle, this would accumulate in the body (e.g. Hippoc.Mul. 1. 1). The excess needed to be evacuated both regularly—the most common terms for the menses translate as ‘monthlies’—and heavily, the expected blood loss being about half a litre (nearly one pint) over two to three days"

Apparently those of us who menstruate, do so because we have too much blood, good to know. Do you want to know where my train of thought went after this?

Mature women have more blood. Having an excess of blood would lead to one being Sanguine (one of the four temperaments. Oh gosh, there's another blog post.) People who were Sanguine were jolly, energetic and social. When I think of jolly, energetic and social older women I imagine someone like Mrs Claus with rosy red cheeks. It's not too much of a stretch to say that rosy red cheeks were probably seen as a sign of having an excess of blood, and suddenly, if you squint real hard, you can kind of see where the link between having excess blood and being jolly would start to form.

I may be going on a little tangent here, but older women who have gone through menopause would no longer be menstruating, and wouldn't be getting rid of that excess blood. Just a thought... Where does it all go?

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see me fall down more research rabbit holes in the future, please do let me know!

Thank you for reading—I hope you enjoyed your time in the History Nook today. Until next time: stay curious, and keep warm.

Sources

Image sourced from Picryl.

https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4124 - Menstruation by Helen King

🐾 A Footnote from Index: 🐾

Do cats have humors too? I hope not.