Once there was a 'theory of the four humors'

“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.” -- Hippocrates


By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- There was a time in our history when the celebrated Greek doctor Hippocrates postulated that all human emotions flowed from four bodily fluids, or humors:
-blood (which makes us cheerful and passionate);
-yellow bile (which makes us hot-tempered);
-black bile (which makes us depressed); and
-phlegm (which makes us sluggish or stoic).
Though the good doctors’ humors have given behavioral scientists a nice structure for examining personality types such as sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, the idea that our bodily fluids make us angry, depressed, or elated died out in 1800s.

NUTRITION

The ancient Greeks believed that the Four Humors were responsible for the nutrition, growth and metabolism of the organism.
They originate in the digestive process. In Greek Medicine, digestion happens in four stages:
-The First Digestion happens in the gastrointestinal tract, and produces chyle; its waste product is the feces, or stool.
-The Second Digestion happens in the liver, and produces the Four Humors. Its wastes are eliminated via the bile, urine and sweat.
-The Third Digestion happens in the blood vessels, and feeds the principal organs of the body. Its wastes are eliminated via the urine and sweat.
-The Fourth Digestion happens in the tissues, and is the final congellation of the Four Humors into living tissue. Its wastes are eliminated similarly to the Third Digestion.
-The Four Humors originate in the liver in the Second Digestion as follows:
Blood, or the Sanguine humor, is the first to arise, and receives the richest, choicest share of nutrients. It is the most plentiful humor, and enters the general circulation.
Phlegm, as Plasma or the Phlegmatic humor, is the second to arise and receives the next richest share of nutrients.
It is also very plentiful, and enters the general circulation.
Yellow Bile, or the Choleric humor, is the third to arise and receives a rather coarse, meager share of nutrients. It is not so plentiful.
Only a slight residue enters the general circulation; the rest is stored in the gall bladder, its receptacle, to be used as needed.
Black Bile, or the Melancholic humor, is the last to arise, and receives the coarsest, most meager share of nutrients. It is the least plentiful. Only a slight residue enters the general circulation; the rest is stored in the spleen, its receptacle, to be used as needed.

METABOLIC

The first two humors, blood and phlegm, are moist and flourishing, and are the metabolic agents of the Wet elements - Air and Water, respectively. Most of the nutrition, growth and metabolism of the organism depends on them.
The last two humors, yellow bile and black bile, are dry and effete, and only needed by the organism in small amounts. They are the metabolic agents of the Dry elements - Fire and Earth, respectively. Although only needed in small amounts, they are potent and essential catalysts where needed.
The withering of the Hippocratic belief in humors proved to be good news for patients who were not thrilled with the practice of bloodletting, a process of opening a patient’s veins to lower blood levels in an attempt to bring the humors into balance and cure all manner of mental and physical ills.
Bloodletting, with a knife or with leeches, was an accepted medical practice from the time of the Greeks, Mayans, and Mesopotamians; and it was going strong at the end of the 18th century, when George Washington had almost two liters of blood let out to cure a throat infection. He died shortly afterward.