4 Humours

• The 4 humours theory was first suggested by Hippocrates in Ancient Greece.

  A) Yellow Bile

  B) Black Bile

  C) Phlegm

  D) Blood

  
• Hippocrates believed that if you were ill it was because you had an imbalance of one of the four humours.
• Yellow Bile

  • Bad Tempered.
  • Greeks gave you something that would make you sick.
• Blood

  • Treated with leeches.
  • Blood-letting - bleeding as it was believed there was too much blood inside.
• Phlegm

  • Believed it was because you were unhappy and tearful.
  • Treated with hot chillies.
• Black Bile

  • Believed it was caused because you were sluggish slow and depressed.
  • Treated with a purgative.
• Significance of Hippocrates

  • Showed it was important to observe and record symptoms & development.
  • Theory of 4 humours dominated medical treatment for centuries.
  • Encouraged more natural treatments rather than supernatural ones.
  • Hippocratic Oath still used today to uphold ethical standards.
  • Hippocratic Collection: Books for doctors detailing treatments based on the 4 humours.
• Significance of Galen

  • Dissected animals to understand how our body works. Some observations were accurate; blood in arteries, brain controls body.
  • Promoted by Christian Church.
  • Developed theory of opposites from Hippocrates' 4 humours.
  • Wrote over 350 books on medicine. They were used by medical students for the next 1500 years.
• Galen

  • Ancient Rome - more rational, better public health.
  • Theory of opposites (natural)
  • Understanding anatomy - inside the body; believed blood was made in the liver.
  • Dissections on animals; pigs, monkeys.
  • Pigs; controlled by the brain.
  • Monkeys; 2 bones not 1.