ABSTRACT
Some 2,500 years ago Hippocrates developed the "Temperament Theory" of the four humors (fluids) he identified as blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile which then led to the ancient medical concept known as "humorism." In Greco-Roman medicine, these humors were believed to be the influencers of an individual's relative wellness or ill-health, served as a means to classify illnesses, and subsequently guided medical diagnosis and treatment. Centuries later modifications to Hippocrates' hypothesis were suggested for use in dentistry when selecting denture teeth and later as a means to classify the mental status and personality of complete denture patients. This paper examines the historic transition of the terminology, characteristics, and thinking behind the four humors with mention of key thinkers in this journey. Of particular note is the evolution in the application of this theory from its suggested use in medicine, proposed by Hippocrates, to the descriptions of mental attitudes and personalities of complete denture patients first described by Neil and subsequently popularized by M. M. House.
Subject(s)
Humoralism , Prosthodontics , Temperament , Attitude , Denture, Complete , History, Ancient , Humans , Prosthodontics/historyABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century art historian John Addington Symonds coined the term hæmatomania (blood madness) for the extremely bloodthirsty behaviour of a number of disturbed rulers like Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya (850-902) and Ezzelino da Romano (1194-1259). According to Symonds, this mental pathology was linked to melancholy and caused by an excess of black bile. I explore the historical credibility of this theory of 'wild melancholy', a type of melancholia that crucially deviates from the lethargic main type. I conclude that in its pure form Symonds' black bile theory of hæmatomania was never a broadly supported perspective, but can be traced back to the nosology of the ninth-century physician Ishaq ibn Imran, who practised at the Aghlabid court, to which the sadistic Ibrahim II belonged.
Subject(s)
Bile , Depressive Disorder/history , Humoralism , Psychology/history , Arab World/history , Bipolar Disorder/history , Depressive Disorder/etiology , Famous Persons , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, Medieval , Humans , Male , Philosophy, Medical/history , Psychological Theory , Sadism/historyABSTRACT
During the first Modern Era (15th-17th c.), bodily health and expressions of physiognomy were explained under the doctrine of humors. This doctrine -based on Corpus Hipocraticum-established a close relation between humors (blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile), qualities (dry, moist, warm, and cold) and the elements (water, air, earth, and fire). One of these humors -black bile-, commonly a hallmark of the melancholic temperament, was associated to the complexion and nature of American Indians. This accusation was legitimized by the empirical examination of the physiognomy of a subject that was melancholic, sad and pusillanimous. In this article, we describe, based on the analysis of colonial texts (16th-17th c.), how the essential premises of the humor theory were transferred to the New World and in particular and how the Indian complexion was defined through the examination of subjects plagued by black humor and phlegm. With this, we determine the way these individuals -referred as 'Indians'- were inscribed in medical knowledge, during the global spread of the Hippocratic-Galenic postulates.
Subject(s)
Humoralism , Indians, South American/history , Physiognomy , Temperament , Depressive Disorder/history , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , HumansABSTRACT
During the first Modern Era (15th-17th c.), bodily health and expressions of physiognomy were explained under the doctrine of humors. This doctrine -based on Corpus Hipocraticum-established a close relation between humors (blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile), qualities (dry, moist, warm, and cold) and the elements (water, air, earth, and fire). One of these humors -black bile-, commonly a hallmark of the melancholic temperament, was associated to the complexion and nature of American Indians. This accusation was legitimized by the empirical examination of the physiognomy of a subject that was melancholic, sad and pusillanimous. In this article, we describe, based on the analysis of colonial texts (16th-17th c.), how the essential premises of the humor theory were transferred to the New World and in particular and how the Indian complexion was defined through the examination of subjects plagued by black humor and phlegm. With this, we determine the way these individuals -referred as 'Indians'- were inscribed in medical knowledge, during the global spread of the Hippocratic-Galenic postulates.
Subject(s)
Humans , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , Physiognomy , Temperament , Indians, South American/history , Humoralism , Depressive Disorder/historyABSTRACT
In 1656, some Selecta medica of Dr Johannes A. Vander Linden (1609-1664) were published in Leiden. Among these miscellaneous, it was quite unexpected to come on a medical commentary on a fictional character from Plautus' theatre : Cappadox hepaticus, or the Bilious. Today unknown, full of erudite quotations, this scholarly doctor's commentary is both philological and medical, on twenty densely printed pages in Latin. Every term used by Plautus is analized, weighed up, and confronted with texts or contemporary situations, thereby drawing knowlegde for his everyday work, how to define a bilious, hydropical affection.
Subject(s)
Drama/history , Humoralism , Medicine in Literature/history , History, 17th Century , History, Ancient , Humans , Physicians/historyABSTRACT
Our purpose was to analyse the treatment of one of Galen's major contributions, his systematization of the doctrine of the four temperaments he inherited from his predecessors (Aristotle, Alcmaeon of Crotone, Empedocles, Philolaus), in Lodovico Casanova's Hieroglyphicorum et medicorum emblematum dodekakrounous (Lugduni, Sumptibus Pauli Frellon, 1626). We concentrated on the four temperaments to study how in medical emblems, allegory and symbols are used to represent medical knowledge through the device of visual loci destined to be decoded and memorized.
Subject(s)
Emblems and Insignia/history , Humoralism , Medicine in the Arts/history , Symbolism , Temperament , History, 17th Century , History, Ancient , HumansSubject(s)
Drama/history , Humoralism , Famous Persons , History, 17th Century , History, 20th Century , HumansSubject(s)
Cookbooks as Topic/history , Food/history , Humoralism , Animals , Cooking , Flour , Fruit , History, 15th Century , History, Ancient , History, Medieval , Humans , Italy , Meat , Poultry , Rome , VegetablesABSTRACT
In 18th century academic medicine was formed through the interplay of theory and practice. This scientific development will be shown by the example of Friedrich Hoffmann's twelve-volume collection of case studies "Medicina consultatoria". The correlation of theoretical assumptions (humoralism, four temperaments, mechanistic understanding of the body) and therapeutic practice (bloodletting, sweating therapy, water cure) will be pointed out. It will become clear that Hoffmann's statements on diagnosis and prognosis as well as his general view on therapeutic measures arose as a logical consequence of the pathological concept. The same holds true for his advice on lifestyle and nutrition, which formed part of the medical therapy.
Subject(s)
History of Medicine , Bloodletting , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , HumoralismABSTRACT
In his personal notebooks, the little known Bohemian physician Georg Handsch (1529-c. 1578) recorded, among other things, hundreds of vernacular phrases and expressions he and other physicians used in their oral interaction with patients and families. Based primarily on this extraordinary source, this paper traces the terms, concepts and images to which sixteenth-century physicians resorted when they explained the nature of a patient's disease and justified their treatment. At the bedside and in the consultation room, Handsch and his fellow physicians attributed most diseases to a local accumulation of impure, putrid or otherwise pathological humours. The latter were commonly said to result, in turn, from an insufficient concoction and assimilation of food and drink in the stomach and the liver or from an obstruction of the humoral flow inside the body and across its borders. By contrast, other notions and explanatory models, which had a prominent place in contemporary learned medical writing, hardly played a role at all in the physicians' oral communication. Specific disease terms were rarely used, a mere imbalance of the four natural humours in the body was almost never inculpated, and the patient's personal life-style and other non-naturals did not attract much attention either. These striking differences between the ways in which physicians explained the patients' diseases in their daily practice and the explanatory models we find in contemporary textbooks, are attributed, above all, to the physicians' precarious situation in the early modern medical marketplace. Since dissatisfied patients were quick to turn to another healer, physicians had to explain the disease and justify their treatment in a manner that was comprehensible to ordinary lay people and in line with their expectations and beliefs, which, at the time, revolved almost entirely around notions of impurity and evacuation.
Subject(s)
History, 16th Century , Philosophy, Medical/history , Physician-Patient Relations , Terminology as Topic , Communication/history , Humans , HumoralismABSTRACT
Objetivo: descrever os primeiros ensinamentos de ventosas secas para as enfermeiras brasileiras. Método: utilizou-se pesquisa histórico-descritiva em livros e periódicos publicados até 1945. Resultados: a ventosa terapia era comum no ensino deenfermagem em casos de descongestionamentos de órgãos e sistemas, analgesias, alívio de dispnéias e hiperemias. Utilizavam-se as ventosas clássicas ou a Ventosa de Bier, além deálcool e fósforos. Destacaram-se três técnicas de aplicação da ventosa clássica. Houvediscordância quanto à avaliação da colocação e do tempo de permanência. Conclusão: os autores enfermeiros apresentaram maior detalhamento quanto aos materiais, técnicas ecuidados de pós-aplicação. Todos os autores apontaram os riscos para o paciente, mas nenhum citou o mesmo para as enfermeiras, cuja prática deveria ter importância central.
Aim: to describe the early teachings of dry cupping glasses for Braziliannurses. Method: we used the historical-descriptive research from books and periodicalspublished until 1945. The cupping therapy was common in nursing education to decongestorgans and systems, analgesia, relief of dyspnea and redness. Results: they used theclassic or Bier cupping glasses, besides alcohol, matches. We collected three techniquesabout classic cupping glass. There was disagreement about the evaluation of theplacement and length of stay. Conclusion: the authors, who are nurses, showed moredetails about the materials, techniques and post-application care. All the authors havepointed out the risks to the patient, but none cited the same for nurses whose practiceshould have central importance.
OBJETIVO: describir las primeras enseñanzas de ventosas secas para las enfermeras brasileñas. Método: utilizaron investigación histórico-descriptiva en libros y periódicos publicados hasta 1945. La ventosa terapia era común en la educación de enfermería en casos de descongestionamientos de órganos y sistemas, analgesia, alivio de disnea yhiperemias. Resultados: utilizaron las ventosas clásicas o la Ventosa de Bier, además dealcohol y cerillas. Fue destacada tres técnicas de aplicación de ventosa clásica. Hubodesacuerdo cuanto a la evaluación de la colocación y duración de permanencia. Conclusión: los enfermeros mostraron mayor detalle acerca de materiales, técnicas y atención post-aplicación. Todos los autores citaron los riesgos para el paciente, pero nocitó la misma para las enfermeras cuya práctica debe tener importancia central.
Subject(s)
Humans , Nursing Care , History of Nursing , Suction , HumoralismSubject(s)
Depressive Disorder/history , Famous Persons , Humoralism , Medicine in the Arts , Paintings/history , Germany , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, Ancient , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
A growing interest in the nature of the black skin and in the origins of the peoples classified under this trait was accompanied in the eighteenth century by an increasing differentiation of their nature from whites, to the point that they were considered either a degenerated variety of humans, a separate species or inferior animals. Skin and race go together in the natural history of man, which comprises not only anatomical and physiological aspects, but also the history of nations, the Sacred History, and the aesthetic reflection.
