Four Humors
<p>The concept of four humors may have origins in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_medicine" title="Ancient Egyptian medicine">Ancient Egyptian medicine</a><sup id="cite_ref-Sertima-17_19-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-Sertima-17-19">[19]</a></sup> or Mesopotamia,<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-20">[20]</a></sup> though it was not systemized until ancient Greek thinkers<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-21">[21]</a></sup> around 400 BC directly linked it with the popular theory of the four elements: earth, fire, water and air (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles" title="Empedocles">Empedocles</a>).</p>
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<b>Humorism</b>, or <b>humoralism</b>, was a system of medicine detailing the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by the Indian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda" title="Ayurveda">Ayurveda</a> system of medicine, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_ancient_Rome" title="Medicine in ancient Rome">Roman physicians</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_philosophy" class="mw-redirect" title="Greek philosophy">philosophers</a>, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodily_fluid" class="mw-redirect" title="Bodily fluid">bodily fluids</a> in a person—known as <b>humors</b> or <b>humours</b>—directly influences their temperament and health.
The humoralist system of medicine was highly individualistic, for each individual patient was said to have their own unique humoral composition.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> Moreover, it resembled a holistic approach to medicine as the link between mental and physical processes were emphasized by this framework.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates" title="Hippocrates">Hippocrates</a> onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_medieval_Islam" class="mw-redirect" title="Medicine in medieval Islam">Islamic physicians</a>, and became the most commonly held view of the human body among <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_medicine" class="mw-redirect" title="Medieval medicine">European physicians</a> until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century. The concept has not been used in medicine since then.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT_3-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-NYT-3">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Webster_4-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-Webster-4">[4]</a></sup>
The four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bile" title="Bile">bile</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: μέλαινα χολή, <i>melaina chole</i>), yellow bile (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: χολή, <i>chole</i>), phlegm (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: φλέγμα, <i>phlegma</i>), and blood (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: αἷμα, <i>haima</i>), and each corresponds to one of the traditional <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments" title="Four temperaments">four temperaments</a>. A humor is also referred to as a <i>cambium</i> (pl. <i>cambia</i> or <i>cambiums</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-Burton_5-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism#cite_note-Burton-5">[5]</a></sup></p>